Liar, Liar Gotham on Fire
by ControlYourWorld
Summary: 23-year-old Allison Cambelle is back in Gotham with her daughter after four years away. Everything seems normal, but in Gotham nothing is normal and daddy dearest makes a comeback but he might be the one surprised. Long summary inside. Joker/OC
1. Gotham City

**This idea has been in my head for a while now, but I don't know how solid my ideas are. If no one seems to like it, I won't continue it, so if you're still interested after reading this kind of boring chapter let me know. Also if anyone might be interested in being a BETA reader for me for this story let me know. If you read through the whole chapter I would love to know what you think and what you might like to see happen. It will have some Bruce Wanye/OC but is mainly Joker/OC if you really hate Bruce Wayne then it might not be your cup of tea, but I don't plan on writing him the way a lot of people do, but you can judge that for yourself.**

**This starts just before Batman Begins, which I will just skim through, and then we get to the Dark Knight, and by the grace of God if I am still writing will go post Dark Knight. I will jump time quite a bit, but I'll try to do so smoothly and clearly I'm just doing it to move the story along so I don't fall asleep while writing it and you don't fall asleep while reading it. **

**Anywho here is the more detailed summary.**

**Disclaimer: I only own Allison, Nathan, Janet, Dornan, and Allison so far, everything else isn't mine…unfortunately. **

**Summary: **_23-year-old Allison Cambelle didn't have the best childhood. Being orphaned at a young age with her older brother, Nathan, caused both children to grow up fast especially in Gotham's infamous Narrows. There Nathan befriends an interesting teen that Allison falls hard for. Not even being adopted by one of Gotham's elite families could change Nathan and young Allison. She shares one steamy night with the love of her life and then he mysteriously disappears. The sky seems to fall once Nathan murders an important member of the mob and Allison finds out she is pregnant. She decides to leave Gotham for Miami where she has her daughter, Addison, and then pursues a short but successful career as a model. Four years later Allison returns to Gotham with a brother in Arkham and a three-year-old to raise on her own. What happens when that special someone from her past makes a big comeback? Can she still love him despite his changes, and when Bruce Wayne returns Allison will have to make a choice, but it won't be easy and she won't like it. Not. One. Bit. _

***

Gotham City.

The last place Allison Eve Cambelle wanted to be.

Wayne Tower.

The reason she was questioning why she came back in the first place, but here she was, standing outside the rotating golden doors waiting for her interview.

Brushing out any nonexistent lint on her pencil skirt and button up blouse she smiled at the doorman as she entered the large skyscraper.

To Allison it had seemed like a century since she had seen the black building that towered over Gotham, in actuality it had only been four years since she had been in the dreary city.

Allison made her way to the large black marble front desk in the center of all the Wayne madness.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked as she cocked her head to the side seemingly annoyed.

"Oh um…yeah hi, my name is Allison Cambelle I'm here for an interview with Mr. Fredericks."

The brunette looked at the blonde standing before and immediately gave a look of disgust, "40th floor, Ms.," she paused as her eyes raked Allison one more, "Cambelle."

With furrowed eyebrows Allison replied with the only thing that came to mind, "Um, thanks?"

"Welcome," was the only reply she got as she walked towards the elevator. Truthfully Allison had received similar reactions from women, but it never ceased to piss her off.

Once the elevator arrived, Allison pushed the 40 button, wondering if maybe this was some trick button that would send her flying through the roof. Alas, the elevator climbed to 40 and stopped. The opening doors revealed a contemporary looking foyer with another front desk, all offices were mostly glass and upon walking further into the impressive floor of this large complex, she noted the extremely large conference room that could easily seat fifty.

Certainly not looking forward to meeting this receptionist Allison reluctantly made her way to the front desk. Luckily the male behind the marble counter looked more than eager to help her.

"Hello, I'm-"

"Allison Cambelle," he finished flashing her a genuine and slightly suggestive smile, "have a seat, I'll let Mr. Fredericks know you're here."

There wasn't a chance for Allison to reply as a middle-aged gentleman approached her and the receptionist.

"There'll be no need for that Mr. Brower," he turned his attention to the blonde standing unsurely before him and stuck out his hand, "hello, Ms. Cambelle, I've been expecting you. I'm Mr. Fredericks but please just call me Fredericks." Allison smiled at Fredericks and took his hand, shaking it firmly, "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Ms. Cambelle, please follow me." Fredericks led her towards the back of the floor, towards the windows that overlooked the gloomy city, but Allison had to admit that from this height it had a strange beauty to it. She never really minded dark and dreary she had grown accustomed to it as a child.

Upon entering the office Fredericks took a seat behind his large and expensive desk. Allison sat in the chair across from him. "So, why is it you want to work as my assistant Ms. Cambelle?"

The forwardness of his question threw her slightly off guard, she thought they might start with something more general, but she quickly composed herself, "Well, sir, Wayne enterprises is the most successful in the city not to mention the country. I realize my resume might not seem very impressive to fill this position but-"

"Yes, you were a model for a brief time, is that correct?" Fredericks interrupted, not so much in a rude sense, but Allison hated being interrupted.

"That is correct, once I left Gotham at nineteen, I had very little money, yes, I know you must know my adoptive parents, but I really wanted to make it on my own. After everything that happened with my brother," Fredericks knowingly raised an eyebrow, "I needed to get out, I-I knew the press would've been following me around and well," Allison paused, every time she had replayed the last five years in her head she realized how screwed up her life really was. She looked at Fredericks and continued, "I found out I was pregnant and that was the last thing I needed, so after I had Addison I was approached to be a model and well…" her voice trailed off.

Fredericks looked down at what she assumed was her resume, but quickly back at her, "Are you punctual Ms. Cambelle?"

What a complete change of subject.

"As punctual as a woman with a three and a half year old can be."

He chuckled briefly, "Yes, of course, but in all seriousness if you are to be my assistant you are always on call. I'm not completely heartless, I realize you have a life, but I am a serious businessman Allison and time is money, I cannot have a late and incompetent assistant. With you, I believe having modeled know what it is like to make appointments and be on time, correct?"

"Yes, of course, sir," in truth Allison didn't like this man it was clear he was a sleazebag she could already see herself at parties and he would "innocently" put his arm around her waist, but she really needed this job.

Why?

Allison and her older brother Nathan were orphaned at a young age. Their parents were murdered while walking home from the movies one night. After their death Allison and Jason were sent off to a broken down orphanage in the Narrows. Allison was five, Jason was nine; they would remain in the orphanage for three years before they were adopted by Dornan and Janet Conwell. Dornan worked as a prosecutor and was working his way up to running for District Attorney. Both Allison and Jason believe their adoption was to shine a light on the charitable nature and to give Janet something to do.

It was clear to the Conwells that Nathan wasn't going to conform easily to high society as he spent most of his life in the Narrows, so, not knowing what else to do, they let him do what he wanted as long as he didn't get public attention for it. Allison on the other hand tried to give Janet something to work with, but she had always stuck close to her brother and would often follow him around, even when he didn't want her to. As she grew older she realized that even though the Conwells tried, they would never be able to be good parents, they were always too concerned about their imagine and well Allison didn't want to take any money from them anymore; hence the strong desire to get a stable job.

"Well then, Allison, do you mind if I call you Allison?" she shook her head, "excellent, you start tomorrow, be here at 8 sharp, you are welcome to enroll your daughter into the daycare on the third floor if you wish."

"I-I got the job?"

Fredericks nodded his head, "Yes, I think you will fit in nicely here. Now if you'll excuse me I have a conference call to get to."

She quickly stood from her chair and shook his hand in disbelief, "Thank you sir, see you tomorrow morning." She turned clutching her purse and quickly made her way out of the office aware the Frederick's eyes had fallen on her ass.

Bastard.

She pushed the down button on the elevator and nearly jumped when she heard a male voice.

"See you tomorrow, Ms. Cambelle."

She turned to look at the man she knew as Mr. Brower behind the desk. The ding coming from the elevator signaling it had reached her came as a relief as she gave him a smile, "Uh, yeah see ya," she stepped into the empty elevator and watched his lust filled gaze as the door closed.

"Christ, what a creep," she mumbled to herself fiddling with her purse looking for her cell phone.

Dialing Janet's number she wasn't surprised when it only rang twice before she answered. _She really needed a life._

"Allison! How did it go, did you get the job?"

It always took her a deep breath before she could speak to her, "yeah I got it. How's Addy?"

"Oh! That's wonderful! I knew you would. Dornan had seen Fredericks at his annual formal and Dornan spoke highly of you."

Fuck. "Are you telling me that Dornan got me this job?" It was like she could never escape, perhaps the only place Dornan wouldn't have any connects is in the Narrows.

"Of course not, dear, _you _got you the job, Dornan just made sure Fredericks took a long look a your resume."

Was she expecting a "thank you"? She wasn't going to get it. "How's Addison?"

"Well she's been wonderful darling. I had Rosa give her a haircut, just a trim though don't worry. She's in the backyard in the garden right now. I'm so happy you brought her here the two of you are welcome to stay, I really wish you would take the money Dor-"

"Janet, Addison and I are just fine in the apartment I have," Allison walked out into the street and made her way towards the bus stop, "I'll be there in about an hour, I have a couple errands to run."

"Ok, please be careful and for God's sake make sure you're back here by dark, I can't believe you won't take a car Allison, it's not safe."

"I think you forget where I had grown up Janet, I'll be fine." With that she hit the end button on her phone. The bus pulled up shortly after. She often got strange looks on public buses. She certainly didn't look like she belonged on one, but no one knew who she really was anyway, sure they might have seen her centerfold somewhere but she was so much more than a pretty face. If only this people knew the kind of stuff she had been involved in.

Three buses later, Allison finally reached her destination.

Arkham Asylum.

The bus driver looked at her curiously as she stepped off the bus, but she simply glared at him as she walked to the first of many security stations.

The guard, as everyone else, had already prejudged her, "Are you lost Miss?"

"No, I'm here for a visit."

The guard cocked his head to the side, "And whom might you be visiting?"

"Nathan Cambelle, he's my brother."

Already expecting him to ask, Allison pulled out her ID to prove her relationship. He looked over it for a while, probably still in disbelief before handing it back to her.

"Alright Ms. Cambelle, put this where it's visible," he handed her a visitor's badge, "the guard right through the front doors will take you."

"Thank you," she smiled, at least he wasn't treating her like a piece of meat.

The guard was waiting for her as expected. Once he searched her purse he led her through tightly secured doors down the where the holding cells were.

Allison could feel her adrenaline pumping. It had been a long time since she had seen her brother. She left shortly after his sentencing, she wondering if he was different. Sure he was going to look a little older, maybe a lot older after having been here, but she was particularly nervous how he would react to her fleeing Gotham. He would see it as running away, but she hoped after she explained he would understand.

When the guard finally stopped she almost bumped into him, "We'll let you have 15 minutes with him. He's still considered a moderate risk, so someone will be close by watching. Hit the red button, or _scream_, if you need help."

It took a lot for Allison not to completely scream at the guard but she settled for a sarcastic smile before walking into the cell.

"Well, well, well, if it ain't my little sister. You're all grown up kiddo."

Her eyes gazed over his. He did look older, paler, but surprisingly stronger, not weaker. He was probably at least 6'2" but it was hard to tell since he was sitting on his bed.

"That tends to happen in four years."

Nathan looked hurt, angry, and perhaps he had the right. He knew very little of why she hadn't come, for all he knew she had just decided not to visit.

"Are you married now? You look like you're doing something fancy, business, politics?"

"No, I just got done with an interview."

"Fuck the small talk Allie, where the fuck were you? You just ditch us like that? I thought you had more balls then that, always tryin' to hang with the big kids, but ya' couldn't take it."

"Fuck you Nate! I just got back to Gotham last week, I left after everything happened. You were convicted of 1st degree murder Nathan!-"

"On the count of insanity," he cut in with a smirk. Dornan had worked up the insanity mumbo jumbo to bail him out of life in prison, this way he at least had a chance of getting out one day. Dornan had not interest in Nathan getting out, but it looked better for him if his murderous adoptive son was driven to murder from trauma as a child rather than the fact that he didn't give a shit about what he had done on contrary he was quite proud.

"It doesn't mean you're getting out of here anytime soon."

"I think I might be getting out of here sooner then you think, Al."

She scoffed at him, he had always been cocky, especially during High School when he started pursuing all the females in his class. He never dated long, he just humped and dumped and of course that just made him more desirable to the teenage girls. Who would be the one to whip Nathan Cambelle, no one; that's who.

"Where did you go?" he asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"Miami, after I…" she stopped, he didn't know about Addison, "well I guess I should start by telling you that you weren't the major reason I left, there were a lot of reasons."

"Let me guess, you wanted to get away from Janet and Dornan, and you were mourning the loss of your biggest crush."

Chills went across Allison's skin; they were going to bring _him_ up.

Nathan was quick to notice her reaction, "you know you really need to get over it. He was fucked up, Al, I don't think he was capable of loving someone let alone someone like you. He didn't think of you that way."

He was mocking her, obviously maturing wasn't one of the things doctors at Arkham focused on.

"I was pregnant, Nathan." That wiped the smug look right off his face.

"What?! With who?! Whoever fucking knocked you up, I swear to god I'll fucking rip their throat out, Allison, how could you be so fucking dumb?"

"Be so fucking dumb?! Nathan it was _him_ you know the one who would never go there with me. Your best friend, the 'love' of my life; Jack Napier."

Nathan leaned back against the wall looking flabbergasted, "Well fuck," he finally said dumbfounded.

Allison was starting the think it would've been a better idea to stay in Miami.

**Well congratulations making it to the end if I continue it should get more exciting, but please let me know what you thought and if you would want to be my editor, it's probably apparent that I need one. **


	2. One Night Stand

**Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, and added this story for an alert. I hope you all enjoy this chapter we do jump back in time and I also wanted to let everyone know this story takes place in 2005 (I took that because that's when Batman Begins was made and we're just before all that).**

**Reminder that this story is rated Mature and there is a reason for that other then language. **

**I feel a little better about this story after writing this chapter but I will be much more motivated/inspired with the more reviews I get. **

**Warning: I wrote this chapter while on muscle relaxers, so although I think it's pretty well edited I might have missed a few things so I apologize.**

"So…I have a niece…"

Nathan wasn't exactly sure how he should react to all of this. Jack was his best friend and he knocked up his sister, but he liked Jack, but he didn't think he liked Jack being with his sister. Fuck. It was too much.

"Her name is Addison Grace Napier, she's three…and a half." Allison was slightly humbled after spilling the news like that. She wasn't sure how she had planned on doing it, but this didn't seem like the right way.

"So this happened…when?"

"The night you murdered Hector."

Allison glanced down at the ground recalling that night.

**Conwell's Townhouse 2001**

"What are we going to do Dornan? The police are searching for him right now."

"We hope that they find him, then we take it from there."

Janet look unsurely at her husband as tears streamed down her face. Her adopted son was wanted for murder, but listening at the top of the stairs eighteen-year-old Allison was certain her tears weren't _for_ Nathan, they were _because_ of him. She was crying for herself and for her husband and although part of Allison understood she felt her blood boiling.

Allison continued to listen to the wealthy pair but her mind was distracted wondering where Jack went. She had told Dornan and Janet that she was hanging out with a few girls from school, like she had done many times before, but in reality she was with Nathan and Jack.

They met at their usual spot, an abandoned apartment building in the Narrows that Jack had adopted as his place, but Nathan wasn't there. Now Allison knew where he had been. Jack was trying to keep her distracted while her brother robbed and murdered a member of the mob. She had never felt so much anger at Jack before.

His attitude had been different then before, she felt stupid; she should've known what was going on. He had flirted with her before, but it had all been in good fun. Jack was like that and although she knew he wasn't sincerely trying to court her, she was the only girl he ever seemed to give the time of day. He was always mysterious and when a girl did try to approach him, he would most likely disgust her or freak her out with some morbid comment.

That night; however, Jack had fooled Allison into thinking he was sincere. He had told her Nathan was probably fucking some girl so they could just hang out. She had been so stupid, Jack had never just wanted to "hang" out with her and Nathan had never missed one of their "meetings".

The newly claimed young adult was smitten with the 24-year-old and welcomed the unusual attention. They sat together on the worn, dirty, and torn couch watching an old black and white TV from the 60s. Allison certainly wasn't paying attention to it, though; she was more concerned with how close Jack had got to her. His arm was draped lazily around shoulders, that wasn't too unusual what was however was his fingers gently drawing circles on her collarbone just above her breasts. At eighteen she had slowly begun to grow into a young woman. She was a late bloomer but in the last year or so her breasts had gone from an A cup to a solid B and Allison was pretty sure they were still going to grow. Her bony square shaped body now had some shape around her hips but she was still pretty gangly. Jack would always tease her and pinch her skin (rather hard) and tell her to "eat a hamburger or something".

Tonight she felt like he might be noticing her changes, it probably had something to do with the thin white spaghetti strap tank she was wearing and her figure fitting skinny jeans with her signature black converse. The heat rose to her cheeks when she felt his fingers playing with her bra strap. She kept her eyes glued to the TV trying to pretend like she didn't care or notice, but when she noticed his lips curl into a cockeyed grin she finally got the courage to look at him. He raised his eyebrow but continued to "watch" the TV.

"What are you doing?" she tried to sound confident in herself but blushed when her voice cracked at the end.

He turned his body slowly towards her, his hand still playing with her bra strap, "_Meeee_?" His voice was innocent and playful like he didn't know what she was talking about, "well I'm uh watching the tube Al what are _you_ doing, other than looking like a tomat_o_."

She took his arm from around her and glared at him, "Don't play games with me."

He startled her when he pushed her back onto the couch and hovered over her and in a husky low voice he said, "Who said I was playing games, doll?"

Her blue eyes gazed into his dark brown ones, every time his voice got that low it was like a volt of electricity shot through her making her aware of everything he was doing. His hips slightly ground into her, but to her it was like he was bulldozing into her.

Jack took a moment to take in the young blonde before him, he had always called her jailbait once he had turned eighteen but he realized she was no longer a teenager. She was a young woman and although he thought she would never know it, she was very tempting to him. Around the public she was a courageous little fireball, but around him she was like a little doll, _his _doll. No she wouldn't let him do whatever he wanted, he couldn't count how many times she had punched him in the chest, but he knew her feelings for him were strong. When he first met her he thought it was infatuation and maybe it was, but it was something more for her and as much as he hated to admit it, it was for him too that was abundantly clear as he looked at her now.

She didn't know it, but this was going to be the last time she saw him. As he loomed above her now she wondered what he was going to do. Her core was already growing wet just from his center touching hers. Without thinking she wrapped her fingers into his belt loops pulling him closer to her.

"Jack" her voice was barely a whisper.

Lust seemed to glaze over his eyes and within a second his lips were fused with hers. This wasn't their first kiss, it had happened three times before, two of those times both had been intoxicated and awkwardly shrugged it off. The time before had been her first kiss; she had convinced him to kiss her was she was fifteen because she had a date that night and was worried she would be bad at it. She was far from it.

His tongue slide across her lips, which she quickly opened pushing her own tongue against his. He pushed his hand underneath her shirt, not wasting anytime to squeeze her bra covered breast. She knew he would be quick about everything maybe even forceful but she always loved his aggressive behavior and although it still wasn't completely clear how far they were going to go, she was ready for anything.

When Jack started to move his hand downward Allison let out an eager moan praying he would go further. He separated himself from her lips and brought his legs on either side of her and gazed down at her as he fumbled with the button of her jeans, after he unzipped them and pulled them down he kept eye contact. She lifted up her hips allowing him to pull them off all the way taking her underwear with it. She swallowed hard but never thought about stopping.

He pulled off his black t-shirt and leaned down to kiss her again. She entangled her fingers into his dark brown locks as their kiss deepened. He moved his lips down her chin to her neck leaving goose bumps all over her skin. She moaned loudly when he dug his covered hardness against her naked clit. His mouth moved to the swell of her breast and he growled in frustration as though he just realized her torso was still covered. He moved away just enough to rip her tank off and reached into his pocket flipping out on of the many knives he owned.

In one swoop he flipped it opened and expertly cut the center of her bra exposing her entire body to him. He ran the knife carefully along her skin not leaving any marks. To Allison this was extremely erotic, she had always been fascinated with how delicate the human body was to knives and always played around with them when she was at Jack's place.

He noticed her eyes close as he trailed the knife along her stomach and once he moved lower she bit down on her bottom lip. It was tempting for him to keep going, maybe even drawl some blood but he was way too turned on. His cock was so hard if he didn't release soon he would suffer from blue balls. He threw his knife on the ground and unbuttoned his pants. In a very quick fashion he pulled them down taking his boxer briefs along with them.

The virgin whose eyes were now opened focused on the large fully erect manhood in front of her. Although she knew he would be large, she was suddenly slightly worried. It would hurt, she knew that much and although her tolerance for pain was high, this still made her nervous.

_This is Jack_ she told herself. On many occasions she had pictured them having sex, this was a fantasy coming true; she let her body completely relax.

She was so distracted by her thoughts she was pleasantly surprised when she felt his thumb rubbing her swollen clit. He slowly pushed a finger inside of her, once she adjusted he stuck in another one, not moving either of them, once he felt her muscles relax he slowly drew his fingers out and then pushed them back in while his thumb continued massaging her. His movements increased and the thrusting rubbing combination was enough to make her go over the edge itself.

By now Jack's cock was throbbing, watching her wither under him in ecstasy was more than he could handle. Sure he jacked off like any other guy, but sex was never some major thing he focused on. He was more interested in…less conventional things. Knives, guns, bombs, they occupied his time more then females. He had meaningless sex before but this meant something to him. He would be uneasy about it later, but now he was living in the moment.

"Do you think you're ready?" he couldn't help it, he tried to let her adjust, but he was growing impatient.

"God yes," she moaned still getting closer to reaching her climax as his fingers worked her.

Quickly, he pulled his fingers out of her causing her to gasp at the sudden void within her. He pushed her legs apart and settled himself between them. He put an arm on either side of her, which was quite a challenge considering the couch wasn't very wide, but he was determined. He reached back to one of her legs and put it around his waist. Allison got the hint and wrapped the other leg around his waist as well.

"Try to relax," he whispered in his low voice that she loved and nipped her ear.

The two moaned together as his member rubbed against her clit. That was all Jack needed and he slowly but swiftly pushed himself into her. The pain was intense and Allison winced, but Jack helped her by again using his thumb to massage her most sensitive spot bring a deadly mix of pleasure and pain. She could tell once her hymen was torn but she took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax. She was still very aroused despite the discomfort she originally felt and after Jack had pulled in and out slowly three times, she felt ready for him to speed up.

She arched her back and met with his slow thrust and when she heard him moan she did it again. Knowing she was pleasuring him was enough pleasure for her despite her own discomfort. He took his own initiative to move at a faster pace and sped up even more when he heard her moan.

Jack buried his head into her neck as he felt himself approaching his peak. He continued to rub her clit knowing that would bring her to a climax faster and he was right. Allison's body shook under him feeling like jolts of electricity were running through her muscles. A warmth spread all the way through her and as an orgasm finally hit her. Jack removed his thumb and with a few more thrusts he collapsed on top of her his body spent.

The couple laid together for awhile both covered in a thin layer of sweat before he broke the silence, "I have to leave Al."

"Do you have another delivery or something?" she asked running her fingers through his hair.

She knew Nathan and Jack were involved in elicit illegal activity but both men made sure she knew as little as possible.

"Well, uh, see we had a mission, but uh if we succ_**ee**_d we'll have to get out of town for awhile and uh judging by the time, I think your brother might be in some trouble."

She pushed her weight onto her elbows, lifting herself slightly, "_What_?"

"Yeeeah," was all he said, his voice almost mocking her.

"What kind of trouble is Nate in?"

"Well, doll, that depends so I can't really say, but I really should leave."

She couldn't believe it. They just get done having sex and now he's telling her Nathan is probably in trouble and he needs to leave town? Ridiculous.

"Get the fuck off me Jack," she hissed.

He slowly did so laughing at her as he did, "Re-lax firecracker, I'm sure Natie is alive, well I'm pretty sure, he just might have gotten caught. It was a 'high risk' mission," he used air quotes, "I told him he shouldn't go but no, no, no, he didn't listen to _me_. If he's caught they'll be after me next doll cakes, that's why I gotta skedaddle."

Allison huffed as she stood up from the couch slipping on her underwear ignoring the blood that was between her legs. She pulled her jeans up after and slipped on her tank top.

"What about your bra-ah?" he once again used the voice that he used to mock or flirt with her.

She grabbed her purse, "Keep it for all I care, or leave it here you asshole."

When she turned for the door she didn't get very far. He gripped her and shoved her against the wall next to it, "You should've known this didn't mean anything, kiddo," his voice was back to normal, low, but not too low. "It was a good time, and yeah I care about you, but that's it. I thought we were clear on that."

Allison was angry but felt the tears threatening to spill over. "Yeah we're clear." She shoved him away swallowing hard, "call me if you're ever in town again." This time she successfully exited still refusing to let the tears flow as she walk through the dangerous narrows.

Jack watched her leave and closed the door behind her, "Oh I'll be back doll," he said glad she couldn't hear him.

Now that Allison sat back in her room she let herself cry. Her brother was gone and now Jack was gone. She hated how much she wanted him here, she felt like he had taken advantage of her and wasn't happy with how much she was affected by it.

Going into the bathroom to shower it was then Allison realized she had forgotten about protection.

**Arkham Asylum 2005 (Present Time)**

"That was the last time I saw him," Allison said looking at her brother. She was feeling emotions from that day she never wanted to feel again.

"Jack and I were leaving that night, Al," Nathan said no longer hating his sister for leaving. She didn't give him an extremely detailed story, thankfully, but what she told him was enough for him to pity her. Allison shook her head, "It really doesn't matter anymore, I don't want to know any of it."

The guard interrupted the two, "Alright, time's up Ms. Cambelle."

Allison looked over at the guard and nodded, she turned back to her brother to see that he was standing in front of her. She was right, he was taller and when he wrapped his arms around her, Allison melted. She was with her protector again and killer or not he made her feel safe.

"I'll be with you soon," he whispered in her ear but at the time Allison didn't think much of it.

She pulled away and whipped off a couple of stray tears that had fallen. The guard lead an emotionally drained Allison out of the room.


	3. Yachts and Gucci Purses

**Disclaimer: I only own the names you don't recognize.**

Once Allison reached the Conwell's large townhouse from Arkham she felt drained. Every once in awhile she thought about Jack Napier, but was fairly certain _he_ would never be back again.

Entering the townhouse, Allison carried bag of random groceries she picked up as to not raise suspicion. Old habits die hard, after all.

"Mommy, mommy, mommy!"

The pitter-patter of little feet could be heard running from the kitchen in the back to the front door where Allison still stood. She grinned as the mop of dirty blonde curls came towards her as fast as short legs could carry her.

Addison grace latched onto her mother's leg holding it as though she thought she was never coming back. Allison had to hold back from laughing, the little girl was clearly tired of her grandmother's attention and she certainly couldn't blame her.

Janet quickly followed behind her, "Addison Grace!" her voice was stern, but Janet could never sound mean. She was holding a rather extravagant and puffy dress, "you should at least try it on dear, I think you would look so adorable." Addison wrinkled her nose at the dress and pushed her head into her mom's thigh. Janet sighed in defeat, "Allison she is just like you, it's ridiculous."

"What does she need the dress for anyway?" Allison hoped Janet wasn't going to say-

"A dinner party of course."

Crap.

"Don't you think she's a little young to be going to dinner parties?" Addison peaked her head out to look at the dress one more time before sticking her thumb into her mouth.

Allison placed her hand on top of the young girl's head, trying to comfort her.

"She most certainly is not. This isn't some serious party, Allison. Dornan called me today informing me that Bruce Wayne has just arrived back in town and he invited Bruce to come over for an intimate welcome back party. I want you and Addie to be there."

"Bruce is back?" No one had heard from him in over seven years. The young billionaire had to be close to thirty now, most people thought he might be dead. Allison was suddenly concerned about her job.

"Yes he is and I thought it would be wonderful for you to meet him and maybe-"

"**No**, whatever you're thinking get it out of your head."

It was definitely time to go, Allison reached down and picked up Addison, who was still sucking her thumb, into her arms, the three-year-old continued to look at her grandmother and the rather hideous dress.

Janet sighed in defeat, "It would at least be appreciated if the two of you showed, it is probably in your best interest to at least meet and talk to him, perhaps find out planes with his company you wouldn't want to be out of a job so soon."

She was right, it would be beneficial to talk to the billionaire about the future of the company, she just wished it didn't have to be over a fancy dinner, "Fine, Addison and I will be there for dinner, but the second I feel like you are trying to set me up, we leave. Deal?"

"Of course darling," Janet couldn't hide her mischievous grin and Allison was already regretting her decision. "The dinner will be held next Friday, six o'clock for drinks and dinner will be served at seven o'clock, I expect you here by five to make sure the two of you are properly dressed."

Allison bit down hard on her bottom lip, "Fine," was all she said, she stuck her free hand out and Janet, with the grin still plastered on her face, handed Allison the dress, which received a grimace from her daughter.

"Say goodbye to grandma."

Addison looked at Janet and mumbled a, "bye grandma," before burying her head in the crook of Allison's neck.

"I'll drop her off the same time tomorrow. Tell Dornan I said hello"

"Of course dear, see you both then."

***

The week quickly came and went, although Allison wasn't fond of Mr. Fredericks her job proved to be somewhat enjoyable. She was often given a list at the beginning of each day instructing her on her tasks for the day. At the beginning of the week, she followed Fredericks a lot, but after about the third day she was left alone and only in his company when she needed to be. Wayne Enterprises was stirring about the arrival of the billionaire, many worried, some curious. Mr. Earle the CEO, who Allison disliked more than Fredericks, was particularly dreading his arrival. Luckily for them Mr. Wayne hadn't showed up at the office yet but it was only a matter of time.

Regardless of her job she almost hoped Wayne would throw Earle and Fredericks out of a job. The money hungry bastards deserved it, but from what she understood, Wayne would not be much better then either of them and whom that should surprise was beyond her. He had more wealth then anyone should and he was only thirty. She imagined all the women throwing themselves at him just for one dinner date. The idea made her sick and she was fairly certain she wasn't going to like him.

Sitting at her modest desk outside of Fredericks's large office she glance down at the clock. It was nearly three and Fredericks had already told her she would be allowed to leave and three-thirty today for her dinner party with Mr. Wayne.

"Ah, Allison, I'm happy you're out here," Fredericks grinned at the blonde as her approached her, carrying a file, "will you please run this down to Mr. Fox in our Applied Science Division, it's in the basement."

"Of course sir," she said taking the file out of his hand and standing up.

"Take your things with you, you may leave from there."

"Thank you sir."

The middle-aged man smiled, "have a good weekend Allison, I want to hear all about your dinner with Mr. Wayne on Monday."

She gave short curt nod forcing a smile as she walked past him.

"Hey Allison, what are you doing on Saturday" a familiar and annoying voice said behind her as she pressed the down button on the elevator.

"I'm not going out with you Mr. Brower," she said once again to the man who was extremely persistent in trying to win a date with the young assistant.

"I'll just try again on Monday you know," he said smirking at the blonde whose back was facing him.

She rolled her eyes and sighed only turning her head towards him, "I know you will Victor, but the answer will still be no."

He winked at her as the elevator dinged signaling its' arrival.

She shook her head and stepped into the elevator, which was surprisingly empty and hit the basement button.

The basement was pretty impressive. It was extremely large and had equipment everywhere. The blonde, who was never shy about being in different surroundings, almost forgot the task at hand and explored the large space.

She came across an interesting piece of armor hanging up in a protective display cabinet. It looked extremely heavy duty and she ran her fingers along the glass protecting it.

A soft "wow," escaped her lips as she observed it. It looked virtually indestructible.

"Can I help you miss?"

She jumped at the voice and spun around to see a black man with a sincere smile on his face looking at her.

"Oh, hello, sorry I was just admiring…well anyway are you Mr. Fox?"

"That would be me Ms…."

"Cambelle, but please call me Allison, I'm Mr. Fredericks's new assistant. He sent me down there to drop this off," she stuck out her hand and he took the file from her. He briefly looked over the file in front of here and then closed it.

"Thank you, Allison, so you were interested in the survival suit," he signaled to the piece of equipment behind her.

"Oh, yeah," she turned around to look at it again, "it's amazing, did you ever sell it, I'm guessing to the military?"

"Well they were very interested in it for advance infantry, but I suppose they didn't think a soldier's life was worth $300,000."

Allison scoffed, "of course they didn't," she directed her attention back to the basement as a whole, "it looks like you have a lot of remarkable things down here, Mr. Fox."

"Yes, yes, there are, I just hope one day they can be brought to good use."

She nodded her head, "Listen, Mr. Fox, I have to go, I have a prior engagement, but would mind if I stopped down her some times, you know, during my breaks, I would love to see more if you're willing to show me."

Mr. Fox smiled and nodded his head, "That would be lovely, Ms. Cambelle."

"Allison," she corrected.

"Yes, Allison, have a nice weekend."

"Right same to you, I'll see you around, Mr. Fox."

He once again nodded politely at her as she headed towards the elevator. She was already looking forward to getting more of an official tour; she had always had an interest in gadgets like that and couldn't wait to see everything Wayne Enterprises had created.

***

It was nearly four when Allison reached her apartment. She had told Janet that she could keep Addison to get her ready for dinner, which pleased the aristocrat greatly, but the three-year-old was less then pleased as she threw a tantrum that morning. Like most young children she was quickly over it once Dornan had distracted her with his shiny watch and probably ended up giving her money once Allison had left.

Janet gave Allison a dress to wear which was, of course, expensive, but it was actually quite beautiful. It was floor length, emerald green that dipped down just between her breasts, it was backless save for the two thin straps that crisscrossed giving the front of the dress a halter look. It wasn't too revealing and it fit Allison's now hourglass figure nicely without looking too provocative.

After taking a quick shower, Allison gave her long blonde hair soft curls, which would look stunning with the dress. She gave her eyes a smoky look to really make them pop, she started to wonder why she was really making herself look this good for Bruce Wayne. There was a time Allison settled for t-shirts and worn faded jeans and now she was trying to impress, the billionaire. To her, she thought it was more of being something he couldn't have.

The talk around the office was that he was a playboy and womanizer; he enjoyed the company of beautiful women but didn't give any of them more then a night. That was saying a lot considering he had only been in town for a couple of weeks.

_Well he wasn't going to have me_, she told herself putting on a light pink lip-gloss that complemented her creamy skin. She slipped on the dress over her black lacy underwear and the backless strapless bra over her breasts. They had grown to a solid C cup so there was no way she could wear the dress without some sort of support.

She slid the dress on and finished the outfit with gold strappy high heels. Janet refused to let her take a bus to their house so they arranged to have a car pick her up at quarter to five. Looking at the clock she was just in time. She left her bedroom, grabbed her clutch purse and the keys to her apartment before meeting the car downstairs.

The ride was short but Allison was thankful for it anyway, because like many nights in Gotham it was storming. She was the first one to arrive at the house, as she knew she would be. It was only five and drinks wouldn't be served until six. Janet told her there would be a total of 12 people for dinner, she had told Allison all their names over the phone but as usual she didn't pay attention.

The driver walked her to the door with an umbrella, where it opened quickly revealing Janet, all done up and beaming.

"Allison!" she gasped grabbing her wrist pulling her into the house, "you look absolutely breathtaking, I think Mr. Wayne is going to have a hard paying attention to anyone else but you."

"Um…thank you? I told you not to set me up with him," her tone was very defensive. She was tempted to look back to see if the driver had left already hoping she could make a quick escape.

"It's not a set up Allison, but I do want you to take some time to talk to him. What would be the harm in that? It's _ok_ to have someone take care of you," her voice trailed to a whisper at the last part.

Oh, so now they were going to get personal.

"I don't need a man to take care of me, Janet," she hissed back.

"No, you don't, but everyone needs somebody and Addie deserves a father. You're never going to meet anyone if you don't allow yourself to take a risk."

"I took too many risks, that's how I ended up how I am today, if Mr. Right comes knocking I'll know, but I won't doll myself up and throw myself to some billionaire just so Addison and I can ride on yachts and carry around Gucci purses."

Janet sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine, but you will be polite he is our honored guest and it means a lot to Dornan and I. You don't like to be prejudged so don't be a hypocrite," she released Allison's wrist rather roughly and went back into the kitchen probably to make sure the chefs were almost ready.

"Allison, you look gorgeous," a deep, but tired voice said from behind her.

She turned and smiled, "Hello Dornan," she said walking to his outstretched arms. He embraced her tightly and kissed the top of her head. Dornan wasn't exactly a good father, but he was a good man. He tried very hard to be what he thought a father should be, but it never worked too well. Especially when Allison grew into a teen he had no idea how to relate to her at all so often just let her do whatever she wanted. He wasn't around often, but when he was he treated Allison wonderfully and she cared for him, but never thought much of him in the father sense.

He released her from his grasp; "Wayne is going to droll over you."

She playfully rolled her eyes, "Well he can droll all he wants, but that's about all he's going to be able to do."

"How about a drink?" he asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"Please," she drew out knowing she was going to need more then one.

"Is champagne alright?"

"I'd prefer a beer," he shot her a frustrated look, "but champagne is fine," she finished with mock enthusiasm.

Dornan walked away to fetch her a drink.

"Mommy!" a voice above her called. Allison looked up to see her daughter peering down at her through the railing looking like a little princess in the dress Janet bought for her. She ran to the stairs and gripped tightly against the railing as she slowly made her way down the stairs.

"Go slow," Allison instructed and the three-year-old slowed down frustrated.

"Can't I just sit on my bottom and, and, and slide down?"

"Not in that dress you can't," Dornan said suddenly next to Allison, he handed her a glass filled with champagne.

The toddler trotted over to the pair tugging at her dress and then pulling at the spiral curls in her hair. She looked like a young Shirley Temple. It was absolutely adorable, but it wasn't Addison. Allison feared she would be just as rough as Jack when she got older and well she certainly had to admit part of that would be her fault as well.

"Are her dolls in the living room?"

Dornan grunted, "What's left the them, she kept pulling their heads off, putting them back on and then laughing at how they no longer had a neck." He shrugged it off as just a child being a child, but it disturbed Allison. As much as she tried to stop it, violence ran in her daughter's blood. Nathan was the first to be caught after a murder but she doubted it was his first and that he was the first to commit one. It was a nature vs. nurture argument and the blonde was determined to have the nurture side win.

"Addison Grace!" she scolded grabbing the little girl's hand, "why are you pulling your dolly's head off?"

"It's funny mommy."

Oh good Lord.

"_**Don't**_ do it again."

The girl huffed but didn't argue…thankfully.

"Go back and play with your toys Addie," Dornan told her feeling the tension in the room. Once the girl bounced to the other room Dornan took a sip of his champagne, "she's just a child Ally"

"Yes, but she had to learn that that is not an acceptable way to behave, please, don't tell me how to parent Dornan."

The rest of the liquid in her glass disappeared in one gulp, "I'll be in the study, I'm assuming that's where everyone will meet."

He nodded but she didn't look or wait to see it, she simply made her way to the study, grateful to see a bottle of chilled champagne waiting for her. She poured herself another class and sat on the brown leather couch.

Three more glass of champagne later, Allison was relaxed. No she wasn't drunk, but it wouldn't be the greatest time to take a math test or something scientific. She sat and listened to Janet brag of Dornan's accomplishments as he continued to purse his dream of being Gotham's D.A. Only a fourth of the information did Allison retain and it was a relief when the doorbell rang.

Janet promptly got out of her seat, still trying to look like a lady. Her dark brown hair was placed in a proper tight bun. Wearing plenty of jewelry it was clear she wanted to impress all of her guests, particularly Bruce.

Allison felt as though she had become one with the couch and wasn't about to stand to greet any guests unless it was absolutely necessary, meaning Janet or Dornan shot her a glare.

Luckily Bruce wasn't the first guest, it was some other attorney who Dornan knew and Allison brushed him and his wife off. The affects of the alcohol were stronger as it continued to flow through her blood. She was a hundred percent certain she couldn't drive now and the objects in the room weren't as crisp. Drinking at a young age gave her plenty of practice trying to mask her "symptoms".

One-by-one more people filed in and as Allison expected they have her only small amounts of attention, telling her how beautiful she was and asking if she liked her job. After that they went on the boring and useless conversations.

When _he_ walked in the mood of the entire room shifted. Everyone tried to seem more proper, a few seemed to feel awkward, not knowing what to say or do, and others tried to pretend like they've known him forever. Everyone had fled the study to meet him in the foyer and then simply drifted over to a greeting room, which was just to the left of the foyer.

It didn't take long before Janet popped her head back into the study and gave Allison the "glare". She threw her head back into the couch, annoyed, but pushed herself off the couch, thanking god it wasn't as hard as she thought it might be. Walking in heels with a buzz was no easy task, but Allison made it would to the hallway and walked towards the rest of the dinner party.

She made her way over to Dornan who was currently facing her, very engaged in his conversation with a head of brown, slicked back hair. That was, of course, all Allison could see as she approached the pair. As much as she wanted to go pretend to be interested in someone else's conversation, she knew that she needed to get this over with.

When Dornan finally acknowledged her, the man he was talking to turned around and flashed a smile at her. It was then she tried to read him through his dark brown eyes and although his demeanor said "please come talk to me, I'm a big ass kisser" his eyes were revealing something deeper, darker, and there was a hint of "fuck off".

It was then Allison knew it wasn't going to be as easy to hate Bruce Wayne as she had previously thought.

**Ok, well I had really planned on doing the entire dinner in this chapter, but I wanted to stay consistent in all my chapters which have been in the 3,000 word range. For those of you still with me, the story really picks off from here on out. **

**For anyone else who is writer with quite a bit of English experience you know that character development is extremely important. I hope no one was too bored up to this point as I hope you'll agree this chapter had a lot character introductions and development in it. On that note I would really love for you all to either review or PM me with what you think of Allison's character. I don't want her to be Mary-Sue or too cliché it's kind of hard finding a balance of tough chick but a believable tough chick that is suffering from a lot of emotional issues. She of course will continue to develop and change throughout the whole story, but I'm curious of your thoughts now. I also love to hear where readers think the story is going to go. I do have a broad outline of what I'm going to do but if anyone inspires me with one of their ideas I would of course ask your permission to use it and then credit you. I haven't gotten too much response for this story so far but really thank you to everyone who did take the time to just let me know they like it so far. I hope this gives you more and for you Batman Begins fans I hope the story seems to have some sort of skeleton now. **

**As always I edited this myself so I apologize for any grammar errors missed. I am looking for a Beta Reader but I would love if they came to me because it's important to me to have an editor interested in my story. So if any of you Betas read this or if any of you aren't a registered Beta but think you are more then qualified to edit and would like to do so for me, please let me know. **

**If you like this story enough that you want me to continue please just take the two seconds to let me know. I'm not asking for 1000 reviews, I just love to hear from people even if it is **_**constructive**_** criticism, it doesn't even have to be a review you can PM me too. Either way please let me know somehow that you like this story enough for me to continue because it is not set in stone that I will finish this. **

**Thanks for reading.**


	4. Burn the House Down

**Terribly sorry for the long wait. It was a combination of a lot of things, being busy, uninspired, and lazy depending on the day. This chapter is basically to move things along, it jumps some time so please be aware of that. Also there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end and our leading man will be in the next chapter. **

**Thank you to **_TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, lilisle, Blacklion2803, Tiffany Kleinhans, alys98, sapphobrazil, le-vrai-visqueux, brilliantblonde9, _**and last but not least **_Dramatic Ballerina_. **It might only be nine but it's better then none. I hope to hear from you all again and would really appreciate more reviews. I'm curious if I'm putting too much or not enough detail I feel like it might be just enough but since nothing exciting has happened yet it might seem slow or like there is too much. **

**Anyway, happy reading.**

"Ah. Mr. Wayne, this is my adoptive daughter, Allison," Dornan's face was glowing, he had caught Allison's initial expression to being face to face with Bruce Wayne.

She stuck her hand out to shake his but the billionaire caught her off guard and brought her hand to his lips placing a chaste kiss to it. What caught him off guard was her unimpressed reaction when he looked up at her.

He had expected the Conwell's daughter to be a carbon copy of Janet. He had remembered when Nathan and Allison had joined the family but it was after his parents were murdered so he didn't see the Conwell's much after that. He might have been at some Christmas party she attended but he was never formally introduced to her. She was after all only eleven when he went off to Princeton.

She put on a clearly rehearsed fake smile as he released her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you Mr. Wayne. How was your trip back from the dead?"

Smartass.

If she wanted to play the game of faking it, he certainly was up for the challenge.

Dornan laughed at the young woman but by the reaction on her face when she glanced at Mr. Conwell he didn't think it was so funny.

"It was wonderful, but I'm happy to be back." He winked at the blonde almost now over the initial shock that she wasn't going to throw herself at him and his new goal was to make her uncomfortable.

"Right." Her statement was simple and she tried desperately to shift her attention elsewhere. She was even desperate enough to look to Dornan who gave her a small grin before taking off to another group of people.

Jerk.

She looked back at Bruce Wayne and gave him another small smile, "So, I'm sure you'll get these questions at dinner, but what do you plan to do now?" Her question was genuine, she was actually curious of his answer.

"I want to get involved in my family's company."

"As in taking Mr. Earle's job?" He chuckled and took a sip of his champagne, his other hand resting casually in his pant pocket.

"No, I have no desire to be CEO, but I want to be…active. I'm very curious in the Applied Science Division"

He noticed the brightening of her eyes, "It's absolutely amazing, well I only got to see a small part of it, but Mr. Fox has promised to show me around, you'll be very impressed-…" her voice trailed off when she noticed his smirk.

She blamed the alcohol for her fast rambling, "Sorry, I find technology fascinating."

"Something we have in common," he responded, he was already growing fond of this girl. They were seven years apart, but she was one of the most real people he had run into since he had been here. Everyone else in his room just wanted to say they were friends with him although they weren't interested in anything but his pointless social status.

He was happy when he saw something other then her tough exterior.

"Well, Mr. Wayne, just promise me that if you fire Fredericks, I'll still have my job," yeah she was warming up to him…a little.

"I don't think that will be a problem."

***

Three weeks after the dinner Allison learned the terrible news that Mr. Fox had lost his job. She was only grateful for all he had allowed her to see in that amount of time. In the last week, he was extremely careful about what he showed her, which made Allison extremely curious. This was prone by Bruce, who had come in and out of the office since the dinner with the Conwells. Earle was stressed with the arrival of Wayne, he preferred Bruce stayed out of _his _business. Fredericks had also been giving Allison less and less to do, anything she did do was just busy work and she was kept far from corporate meetings.

He was smart to do so too. Allison and Bruce had been spending a lot of time together, more then Allison ever thought they would be. They talked a lot about the corruption of the city with Falcone, Bruce cared a lot about Gotham, she always felt like once nighttime rolled around his mind was somewhere else. Three weeks wasn't an incredibly long time to learn a lot about someone, but Bruce was Allison's only friend.

She felt pathetic.

Tonight was Bruce's 30th birthday party. He had told her not to come, he really didn't want to party anyway, but she insisted; if everyone else was going to come why shouldn't she? He agreed and slyly told her that maybe her presence would make the night better. That kind of innocent flirting was common between the two and as much as Allison would like to deny it, she wouldn't mind if it wasn't so innocent.

That feeling drove her crazy.

At the moment Allison was on her way to pick Addison up from the preschool she enrolled her in. It upset Janet greatly, but it was important that Addison became socialized at young age. Being with a socialite wasn't the same thing; Janet didn't seem to understand that.

The daycare was conveniently two blocks from Wayne tower, which was comforting for Allison, even if it was Gotham. Although the arrival of the mysterious Batman frightened many, it made Allison feel somewhat comfortable. He was the first person to seriously do something about Falcone and his illegal activity. Although she tried not to get to involved in anything having to do with Gotham and its various problems she liked the idea of a person who was going to bring justice, conventional or not.

She hoped that she would get to meet the masked crusader, but knew that would only happen if she was in danger and she didn't want to be in danger.

After gathering Addison from the daycare they stopped at the store to get a few groceries and then headed to the apartment. For once, she wouldn't have to rely on her adoptive parents to take care of her child for the evening. One of the younger interns who Allison had lunch with for the past couple of weeks offered to watch the toddler after hearing she had a daughter. At first Allison just thanked her but didn't think too much of it and then she realized how it would be more convenient and normal to have someone other than Janet watch Addison. She knew the youngster would probably enjoy a breath of fresh air with someone closer to Allison's age than the socialite.

"What do you want for dinner tonight, Addie?" The blonde was in a bit of a hurry so she placed the toddler in the car as she hurried through the aisles.

"Ma 'n cheese, ma 'n cheese, ma 'n cheese," she chanted her little arms flailing in excitement.

"What a surprise," the mother sighed, pulling into the pasta aisle, "you can have mac 'n cheese _if_ you promise mommy you'll eat green beans with it."

"Nooooooo," Addison whined scrunching up her nose her macaroni and cheese victory smile slowly turning into a disappointment frown.

It didn't help that Allison was already feeling bad about leaving her, she had left a lot when they first arrived in Gotham and here she was taking off again. The last thing she wanted was her daughter to grow up with a feeling of abandonment, but Bruce's party was no place for a three-year-old. She made a promise to herself that she wouldn't stay long; she hoped she could convince Bruce to come over to the apartment afterwards so they could celebrate his birthday in a way he might actually enjoy; drinking beer and watching movies.

"Okay how about applesauce?" The last thing Allison wanted was to set Whitney, the intern, up with an impossible toddler.

The frown on Addison's face immediately turned into a smile and she nodded. After grabbing a couple more things she rushed from the grocery store, already expecting that she might be late to the party.

Once she arrived she left her daughter in the living room, she decided to jump into the shower before Whitney arrived. She could hear the little girl laughing, which sounded much like cackling at the television.

Jack.

She sounded just like Jack, she sighed and finished up her shower, and began doing her hair.

Addison jumped up from the couch when she heard a knock at the door. She was rarely shy when in her own home, something that made her mother increasingly nervous. Before she heard her mother's protest she flung the door open, revealing a redhead she had never seen before.

Instead of saying anything the three-year-old stared at the grown-up rather curiously. Who was this woman and why was she at her house?

"Hey there Addison," the redhead smiled down at the little girl. She crouched down to be at eye level, "I'm Whitney, I work with your mom, and we're going to hang out tonight."

The young dark blonde curly haired girl looked a little more comfortable but still didn't say anything, causing the redheaded intern to frown slightly but quickly placed the friendly smile back on her face.

"Hey Whit." The redhead looked up from the toddler to the frantic blonde coming towards her with relaxed wavy hair and a thick white robe.

Addison looked at her mom and walked away from the both adults back to her television show.

"Hey Ally sorry I know I'm early, it didn't take me as long to get her as I thought."

"It's no problem, I'm running a bit behind, so if you wouldn't mind starting dinner for her."

"No problem I was planning on doing that anyway," she glanced at the counter, "I'm assuming it's in that bag," she made her short steps to the kitchen.

"Yeah that's where it would be. Mac 'n cheese and applesauce. I swear I usually make her eat healthy."

Whitney pulled the things out of the bag and began pulling searching for a pot, "Believe me, if it had been vegetable soup, her and I were ordering pizza."

Allison made absently-mindedly fumbled with her robe, "shhh, don't let her hear you, or she'll make you do it anyway."

Whitney laughed as she filled the newly found pot with water, "She seems to be engrossed in her movie…Sweeny Todd…is that really appropriate?"

Allison rolled her eyes, "she loves it. I try not to censor her too much, she isn't going to turn out bad because she watched a movie with blood in it, plus it's not telling her to go out and kill someone and she loves the songs in it."

"It's alright Ally, you don't need to defend your parenting to me, I was just making an observation. Hey," the redhead said placing the pot on the stove to change the subject, "do you think you might be spending the night with Mr. Wayne, I brought some PJs to change into."

Allison rolled her eyes at the suggestive eyebrow raise from her new friend, "No, I actually shouldn't be too long, if anything I'll bring him back here." She mocked the eyebrow raise and turned towards the bathroom.

"Tramp," Whitney whispered so Addison wouldn't here the barely offensive word directed at her mother who just laughed at walked to her bedroom to change.

Fifteen minutes later, dinner was served, Allison was dress, and Addison sat at the tabled shoveling down her mac 'n cheese, leaving the applesauce for last, naturally.

When Allison stepped out, she was in a simple, chic, and sexy knee length black dress, which was on sale, with black heels, and a clutch in her hand.

"Is this alright?"

The intern grinned, "You'll knock his socks off," that was the only thing she could think to say that was appropriate enough.

"I know but I don't think Alfred is interesting in dating."

"Funny."

With a light laugh Allison walked towards her daughter and kissed the top of her forehead, "be good, eat your applesauce, and remember Whitney is in charge."

"Ok mommy," Addison mumbled in response her attention focused on the food in front of her.

"Call me, if you need me, she should be in bed by 9:30, and feel free to crash on the couch, I'm sure you'll hear me come in."

"Right, well let me know if you…you know."

She couldn't hold back an eye roll, "I will be sure to Whit."

With that she closed the front door and walked down the five flights of stairs to the front, where the car that Bruce had arrange to pick her up was waiting. She rushed towards it and apologized to the driver for being late, but he didn't seem surprised.

Once she arrived at Wayne manor she was made aware just how late she actually was. The party was clearly over, the house was burnt down to the ground. Fire trucks still surrounded the massive property. Allison barely let the car stop before she rushed out and kicked her shoes off running towards the distressed palace. She was quickly stopped by a firefighter who gripped her around the waist and pulled her back.

"You can't go in there, ma'am we're just getting the fire under control."

"B-b-b-ut, everyone who was there, Bruce?! Where is Bruce!!!"

She couldn't even form coherent sentences, she felt paralyzed and finally her legs gave out. The firefighter's firm grip kept her from falling, "Ma'am please try and calm down, we didn't find anyone and we got here pretty quick. We think Mr. Wayne and everyone inside escaped. One of the guest had just started pulling away when they noticed smoke coming for the house and called us right away, we were here long before it collapsed."

"Well then where is he?" she asked more to herself then to him. She regained her footing and looked around the disaster sight. She spotted someone she knew very well, "Was he the one who called?" she asked.

"Yes," he responded loosening his grip on her waist, once sure she wouldn't collapse he released her entirely.

"Thank you," she responded plainly rushing over to the man being questioned by the police.

"Mr. Fredericks," she called out, not concerned with the fact that the officer talking to him was in mid sentence.

The businessman didn't seem concerned either, "Allison, my dear, you've clearly arrived at a horrible time."

"Uh, yeah, what happened?"

"Well," the old man scoffed, "Mr. Wayne was two hours late to his own party and then when he came, it seems like he already had knocked back a few drinks and preceded to insult everyone and then kick them out. I was so stunned by the whole thing that I left the house but stayed in my car for a while before leaving and when I did I noticed the smoke. It seems to me like he somehow managed to set the house on fire."

Allison wasn't so concerned with him drinking and insulting everyone but much more interested in the fact that he had been in the house when the fire started.

"How can they be so sure he's not inside then?"

Although no one knew where Mr. Wayne was, they were almost 100 percent sure he wasn't in the mansion, and although she continued to argue with them she finally decided to go home.

She had only been gone for an hour and half and when she walked into her apartment she woke a sleeping Whitney who decided to go home instead although she was more than welcome to stay.

Once Allison changed into her pajamas she walked back into the living room clutching her cell phone hoping to her from the police or even better, Bruce himself.

She brought a bottle of wine and wine glass with her but didn't turn on the TV. She knew it would be all over the news and didn't want to hear any rumors, any information of the situation she wanted to hear straight from the source.

Two glasses of wine later her phone finally rang causing her to jump.

"Ms. Cambelle, this is officer Jim Gordon, I uh, well I have some bad news."

Her stomach dropped and she instantly felt nauseas, "Y-y-you found Bruce."

"Oh, no, Ms. Cambelle, I'm not on that case, I wanted to let you know that your brother, Nathan, has escaped from Arkham."

"H-h-he what?!"

Her heart rate sped up faster then she ever could have imagined as officer Gordon continued, "It was reported to us a half hour ago, we already have a team out looking for him, but we are fairly certain this was an inside job, I realize it's late Ms. Cambelle, but do you think you could come to the station in the morning so we could ask you a few questions?"

"Y-yeah, I can do that, is that all the information you have?"

"Yes, Ms. Cambelle we only know that has been out for at least a hour and we have no idea where he might be headed, which is why I wanted to alert you right away. I'm going to have a patrol unit doing drive-bys all night, but we have no reason to believe you are in immediate danger, but please call us if anything suspicious happens."

Boy was she on overload, "Right no, he won't hurt me, what time do you want me to come tomorrow morning?"

"Is eight alright with you?"

"Yeah, I might have my daughter with me."

"That's perfectly fine, Ms. Cambelle. Again please don't hesitate to call."

"Right, of course, thank you," she slowly removed the phone from her ear and hit the end button.

She tossed the phone to the side and leaned forward supporting her head with her hands.

"What the hell Nathan" she said to herself. It felt as if in that instant all the drama from her childhood was rushing back and it didn't help when a cold voice whispered in her ear from behind.

"Told you I'd be with you soon, Al."


	5. The Art of Disappearing

**Alright, so not as long of a wait for this one. Things really pick up from here on out, this chapter is also a little longer than the other because there was so much I wanted to get out of the way. **

**Thank you to **_TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, Tiffany Kleinhans, Amanda, brilliantblonde9, anonymous, creative-writing-girl13, _**and big thanks to **_IsabelleBlue_ **for her long review, it made my day and is a major reason this chapter came out today.**

**Please keep reviewing. **

**Happy Reading!**

Allison was so shocked that she fell off the couch. When her eyes met her brother's she scowled, "Jesus Christ Nathan!"

He chuckled but put a finger to his lips, "Come on now, Ally, don't want to wake up the squirt."

Already being aware of Addison sleeping just thirty feet away she disregarded his statement entirely, "How the hell did you get in here?"

"I picked the lock, it was dark so I didn't think anyone was home, but I saw that redhead asleep on the couch so I hid in your room for awhile, then when I saw your car pull up, I moved to the shower." His eyes grazed the wine bottle, "when I saw you pull that out I figured I'd wait till you had a couple before I came out, which clearly was a good idea."

By now Allison had climbed to her feet, her heart still going a million miles an hour. "Ok, but why are you here?"

"To see my favorite sister, of course." He laughed at her nonchalant expression and smirked, "I knew you would find out about my recent escape so I figured I'd come see ya and let you know something."

"Why the hell, better yet how the hell did you escape?"

He gave her a mock annoyed look, "I was going to get to that if you just woulda let me finish."

She crossed her hands over her chest and watched as he came over and sat down on the couch. He gripped the wine bottle and took a swig, "See about a year ago, I had a visitor, someone I didn't know but claimed themselves to be my cousin. They told me that _he_ hadn't forgotten about me and I was going to be bustin' out soon so I need to be on my best behavior so I wouldn't get put in the isolated section.

"Honestly I had no idea who _he_ was, but that's the only thing this fake cousin dude referred to him as. So I made a lot of guesses, I thought I was going to be one of Hector's 10 million cousins or something. I figured they were going to break me out so they could finish me off, but I was curious so I behaved myself like a good boy and believe it or not it was one of the guards who broke me out. He'd been workin' there for about a year, one of the biggest assholes I knew, anyway tonight he comes up to me, tells me to keep my mouth shut and the next thing I know the cuffs are off, he throws me street clothes, tells me to change and leads me out of the building."

Allison raised an eyebrow as she know sat next to her brother on the couch, "Just like that? A guard just took you out that easily."

"Just like that Al, anyway once I get into the truck this guy leads me too, he pops out his phone and calls his "boss" and shit did he sound scared as he talked to him. Kinda like this guy was always watching him and could rip his fucking throat at any moment. I'm not goin lie it made me a little nervous, but anyway this guard hands me the phone and of course I'm looking at him like 'why the fuck are you giving me this' but he just practically pleads me to take it, so I do and the first thing I hear is this nasally voice asking me how I've been. It was some of the freaky shit I've heard, so I answer the dude and then…when he responded it cleared up the first thing he says to me is 'don't say my name' and tells me where to meet up with him."

The color had drained out of Allison's face, part of her had always hoped this day would come but then again she also never really thought about what she would do when it did.

"Jack," the name rolled off her lips easier then she would've liked.

Nathan raised an eyebrow and took another swig of the wine bottle. "You got it kid."

"So what, he told you where to meet him and t-that's it?"

"Pretty much, and I got to tell you Ally, by the sound of his voice and the look on that guards face, he isn't the same guy anymore. Shit, his voice scared me, like a serial killing nerd's voice or something, fucking crazy. Anyway I told him I had to see someone before I met him up, he didn't seem thrilled but didn't ask questions. Once I gave his _employee_ the phone back the dude just stopped the car, got out, and told me it was mine to with what I want. Soooo here I am."

There was a moment of silence between the siblings before Allison finally spoke up, "You better get out of here Nat, Jack's waiting and the cops might come up her at anytime, this isn't a safe place for you to be." Her gaze hadn't moved throughout the whole conversation she almost acted as though she heard her long lost lover was back from the dead and in a way he was.

She clearly didn't yet know how little of him was actually back.

Nathan stood up and pulled the car keys out of his pocket, "Alright, alright, but I'll be watching you Al, you and my niece, she's beautiful by the way, looks a lot like you."

"Yeah." That's all she could say, she finally allowed her eyes to land on something other then straight ahead of her and gave her brother a weak smile.

He walked towards the door and placed his hand on the handle, "Oh and Al, I'm not going to tell him about you just yet, I mean if he asks I'll let him know you're in town, but well I just don't even know what I'm walking into yet, ya know?"

"Right," she responded nodded her head, "yeah don't tell him."

Nathan could tell his sister hadn't even remotely gone through the process of little this all sink in so he wasn't going to get anywhere with her, "I'll see you around Ally."

He quietly shut the door behind him, not wanting to wake up his young niece.

Allison barely made it to her bedroom where she shut her door before she completely broke down, he was back and she didn't know what to do. A large part of her wanted to seek him herself and let him know he had a daughter, they could fall in love and live in that big house with the big yard surrounded by a white picket fence. She pictured big dogs in the yard; she loved dogs and definitely wanted them in her fantasy, but the tears fell and this was because she knew she would never get that from Jack.

What could he have possibly become to control people that easily? She wasn't sure she wanted to know. In fact, she had to remind herself she really knew nothing. Nathan wasn't very specific about this guard, maybe he was some young 19 year-old kid intimated by someone older than him, it did seem possible. Jack always had this way of making his voice drop down into that of a bass, he used to use it when he was pretending to flirt with her or mockingly trying to scare her. She could only imagine that how low he could get now. The thought itself sent shivers down her spine.

Climbing into bed, she wiped away a few stray tears and cuddled into the pillow next to her. In the morning she would remember that she had completely forgotten about Bruce Wayne.

***

Nathan drove himself to the familiar abandoned condo he had been to so many times before. In all honest it looked the same, maybe some new graffiti, but all in all it still looked like a piece of shit.

Everything was happening so fast and he wouldn't admit to himself that he was a bit overwhelmed. He hadn't seen his best friend in nearly five years and here he was about to come face to face with him. It was obvious after there brief conversation on the phone that something was different; Jack had always been a lone wolf. Nathan was the only person he might consider a friend and even their friendship wasn't that conventional. They shared a life of crime and adventure, but Jack stayed away from anything social.

There were some kids he went to school with that he thought were pretty cool. At least they had always had parties with hot chicks and free booze, that had been enough to lure a teenage Nathan, but not Jack, those nights he would spend alone, pretending he had some "deal" he had to take care of and didn't have time to party. Now that Nathan knew he had been with his sister a lot of the time, he found himself clenching his fists.

It was as though he just remembered Jacky had knocked up his little sis. He was suppose to watch her, protect her, not fuck her.

He had made up his mind that he was going to bust in there and the first thing he was going to do was punch his former friend and savior and then maybe they could crack open a beer and all would be forgiven. But when Nathan opened the door to the broken down building he immediately froze.

There standing twenty feet from him in the dark room, the only light source being a flickering street lamp shinning through the window was a face covered in white, black, and red. Nathan didn't scare easily, hell no, but he suddenly felt the urge to turn around and run away, but his curiosity got the best of him and he stood in place, not moving an inch forward or backward.

The figure in front of him took a step forward closer to the flickering light source and a Nathan was met with a huge grin, it was then he realized that the grin was permanent.

"Well hellllllllo Na_**tah **_long time no, uh, see," he then broke into a hysterically laughter.

"Dude, what the fuck happened to you?" It was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

"What you don't like my _makeover_" his voice dropped dangerously low at the last word and Nathan absently swallowed…hard in response.

"Well ah, you see, Hector's cousins were a little…hm…_upse__**t**_ that you were already in police custody so when I paid them a visit to, you know, rub it in a little, well I got a little too close and then thought they would do me a fav_or_ and make it so I was, uh, always smiling."

"Jack, that's fucked up."

"Ah ta ta, don't say the 'J' word, that uh not who I am anymore. See I think I got the big picture now Naty and uh as much as I like working alone, it was getting a little bor-ing so, I decided to bring back my old friend, but see that's only if you can keep you mouth shu-_tah _got it?"

Nathan wasn't sure what to do, this didn't even seem like Jack, he was using the nasaly voice he had heard over the phone and damn was it creepy. He was fairly certain his old friend had lost his fucking mind, but where the hell else was he going to go?

"Sure, what the hell do you want me to call you and what the fuck is the big picture?"

"Uh, all those naughty words make you sound like an idiot, as for my name…well soon Gotham will know me as the Joker."

"I really don't think I can call you the Joker, man."

"Then call me boss-ah at least around my employees, hm."

This time it was Nathan's turn to break out into hysterics, boss, really? That was insane.

"What the hell makes you think I'm going to call you boss, dude. I mean I appreciate breaking me out and all and sure I owe you but…boss? Can't I just buy you some weed or something and we call it even."

"HA HA HA HO HO HA HA." The laugh made the small smirk on Nathan's face completely disappear. Fear started to set in once he watched the clown pull out a knife from his pocket, "no no no no, you see Nate, buddy, this isn't a game-ah, I'm going to instill pure chaos into Gotham, way more than those god damned mob dealers and I uh want to offer you a job, but let's get this straigh**t**: You're either in, or," the twirled the knife around his fingers as he slowly approached the convict. He grazed the knife across his own throat and noted the insanity in Nathan's eyes, "you're out."

This was the first time Nathan dared to look away, he clearly didn't have much of a choice, but anyone who willingly wandered around the Narrows didn't fear dying. No. Nathan was much more interested in how his friend came to be the Joker and what his future plans were.

"Of course I'm in, there's no need for the knife."

The Joker skillfully closed the knife and placed it into his pocket and gave Nathan an eerie ear-to-ear smile. His old friend was about to find out that unlike Jack, the Joker didn't have any plans.

***

The morning came all too quickly for Allison. She almost had hoped she could stay in her dreamless sleep because it was far better than the nightmare she was currently in. Her thoughts waking up started with Nathan, moved to Jack, and then her stomach sank when she thought of Bruce.

She practically launched her body at her nightstand and grabbed her phone looking for any messages: There weren't any.

That wasn't good news, but she supposed it wasn't bad news either. She could've received the dreaded Bruce is dead call; so having nothing in this situation could prove to be better.

The clock on her phone read 7:20. Shit. She had 40 minutes to get her and Addison ready to go to the police station. She scurried into the toddler's room and wasn't surprised to see her already awake sitting by her dollhouse quietly playing with her dolls.

"Morning Addy, how long have you been up?"

The little girl shrugged, not startled by her mother's entrance and continued playing.

Allison walked over to the dresser and pulled out an outfit for Addison and laid it on her bed. "We have somewhere to go, so could you please get dressed while mommy gets ready."

The curly haired toddler turned around to look at her mother and nodded, "Where are we going?"

"We have to go to the police station, they have some questions about your uncle Nate."

Yes, Allison had told her daughter that she had an uncle, how in the world was she supposed to hide that from her? Of course the three-year-old had a million question after being told, so Allison just settled it with "your uncle did something bad so he's in time out for a long time." Already knowing that was as far as she would get with her mother, Addison stopped asking questions until now.

She pulled the Hannah Montana nightgown over her head and picked up the shirt laid out onto to her bed, "What happened to uncle Nate?"

Oh boy, she knew that was coming, "He left time out before he was supposed to, and now the police want him back."

So much for getting ready while she changed.

"Was he the man who came here last night?"

The color drained for Allison's face. She had been awake, at least for a little while, what had she seen, heard? More importantly how was Allison going to answer this? She made a promise when Allison was born that there would be no secrets, but now as a mother she realized sometimes, most of the time you had to sugarcoat things.

"Yes, honey, he came her last night. He wasn't supposed to, but he cares a lot about you and I and no matter what he did he wanted to make sure he was safe."

The now dressed curious child looked at her mother and nodded, "Oh, so we don't tell the police he was here."

With a long sigh, Allison tried to give her daughter a reassuring smile, "No honey, we're not going to tell them he was here."

She had a bad feeling that this was not going to be the only time she said those words to her daughter.

Once they arrived at the police station, Allison was reminded of how much crime was going on in Gotham. The station reminded her of Wall Street people were running around, phones were ringing off the hook, and a few people looked completely indifferent at their desks. It was pretty clear which cops were corrupted by the mob.

It wasn't long before a friendly looking officer walked over to her and Addison. He looked tired from long hours and a relentless job.

"Ms. Cambelle I'm presume…" Allison nodded her head and smiled Jim Gordon continued, "you're right on time, please follow me to my desk so I can get you two out of here."

She followed the officer to his small cramped desk and took a seat placing Addison in her lap, "You guys seem pretty busy."

He let out a long sigh pulling out a manila folder she assumed to be her brother's, "It never stops, everyone is looking for the vigilante, but to be honest I'm more concerned with Falcone."

"Have you met the Batman? I have to admit I'm curious."

Jim Gordon was caught off guard for a moment, he didn't want to lie, but telling the truth could lead to more difficult questions to answer considering Batman was wanted.

"I met him briefly, he's breaking laws and should be brought to justice, but he's certainly making my job a little easier."

She leaned forward a little more sensing the officer wasn't telling her everything. "They say he has all these spy type of equipment, have you seen any of that?"

Gordon laughed, his eyes skimming over the file in front of him, "I haven't seen nearly everything, but this suit is quite remarkable, I don't even think a bomb could destroy it. It's too bad the military didn't get a hold of it, but I bet it's expensive. Not to be rude Ms. Cambelle but is it alright with you if we talk about your brother now?"

Allison nodded still wishing to hear more about Batman but didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

"Of course," she responded trying to mask the anxiety rising from her chest.

Many of the questions were simple and Allison didn't have to lie. He wanted to know where she had been after her brother was sentenced, what she had been doing since she got back, how often she had seen him, and then came the dreaded question:

"Did your brother come to see you at all last night?"

She might have squeezed Addison just a little tighter but not enough to be noticed, "No, not unless I was sleeping and didn't noticed, but I'm fairly certain he didn't show."

Jim looked at the blonde in front of him, but believed that she wasn't lying, so took a few more notes nodding.

"Alright, Ms. Cambelle that will do it, please call me if you he does try to contact you and I might call you with a few more questions, if that's alright."

"Of course, call anytime." She set Addison on the ground and stood up.

Officer Gordon escorting her and Addison out of the police station. She took Addison to a small diner her, Jack, and Nathan used to always eat at. It was just on the outskirts of town near the Narrows, but Allison didn't fear it.

It was like home in a sense.

After leaving, the pair went to a bank across the street. It was no place for a young woman and her toddler to be, but Allison didn't think much of it. She had a paycheck to put into her account and it was the perfect time to do it.

She was taking to the bank teller when the door loudly bust opened, a couple of women screamed. Allison gripped her daughter's hand tighter as she whipped her head around to see four men in clown masks come running in with guns.

"On the ground, HANDS UP HEADS DOWN!"

The voice. It belonged to someone very familiar, someone she had just talked to last night.

"Nathan," she said quietly to herself and sunk to the ground with her daughter.

If Nathan was here, so was Jack.

**Next chapter, Bruce makes a comeback, the Joker/Jack gets a little surprise and Allison makes a discovery. **

**Also just a reminder, I'm my own editor so I apologize for the little things I miss. I'm hitting myself over the head for naming Allison and Addison. There was a method to my madness but it gets kind of hard. **

**Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please take some time to review. I would really appreciate it. **


	6. Reunions

**Thanks to **_alys98, TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, Affectionate-Sinner, .Rain.x3, creative-writing-girl13, _**and, **_Laurel_ **for you reviews. I really appreciate them all and you all are part of the reason I wrote this up so quick, so thank you.**

"Hands up! Heads Down!"

Allison turned Addison's head into her chest as the masked clown men stormed the bank, guns in the air.

Deciding to take her chances she slide her butt over to the counter where the deposit cards could be filled out, her goal was to get away from the bank teller. Her actions didn't go unnoticed though as Nathan looked down at her, his gun pointed at some innocent people huddled in the corner. Through the mask she could see his eyes widen slightly.

"Mommy, I'm scared," the little girl's voice was an instant alarm to the blonde and she tore her eyes away from her brothers and onto the frighten child buried in her arms.

"Shhhh, it's ok baby, we're going to be fine," she continued to coo the child no longer concerned with the clowns shouting and pointing guns.

"Why are they doing this mommy?" she started to cry softly and Allison struggled with an answer. Deciding quickly that her daughter feeling safe was the most important she answered:

"Sweetie, one of them in uncle Nathan, he won't let them hurt you." God did she hope it was true.

"Uncle Nathan is one of them?" The girl had already stopped crying and almost sounded…excited. It reminded Allison how little children knew about the world and how important familiarity was to them.

It didn't matter right now, as long as Addison felt safe.

"Yes, he would never hurt you-" the blonde was cut off when a hand grabbed her upper arm and lifted her to her feet. The toddler tightly in her arms, although it was awkwardly.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" The voice belonged to a middle aged man who risked looking up after hearing the commotion.

"Oh and what are you going to do about it old man? You come over here and I'll blow her fucking brains out, that goes for any of you and I know you don't want to be responsible for that." The voice belonged to her brother.

She felt the cold barrel of a gun on the back of her neck and instantly shivered, but she knew she had to follow along she just kept whispering to her daughter trying to keep her calm.

Nathan said some more smartass comments before leading the young woman backwards and out of the bank. She wanted to turn around and punch her brother, give him a few nice words and be on her way, but it wasn't going to be that simple.

Once it was clear that they were away from anyone else around, except the other robbers she finally spoke, "Ok move the gun!"

She heard her brother laugh and then pull the gun away from her neck; she turned around at him and huffed. The other men stopped and looked at the two of them curious.

"Robbing banks in clown masks are you serious? It hasn't even been a full twenty-fours hours!"

"Nathan load them in the truck, what are you doing?!"

"Shut the fuck up Giggles it's not necessary, she won't say anything."

"I'm going to tell the boss about this."

Nathan rolled his eyes and turned around point the gun at…Giggles?

"You go ahead and do that, you'll just have to do it without a fucking head."

The man with his clown mask still on huffed and shook his head. He turned around and jumped into the van down an alleyway.

"We'll talk about this later Al, we got to go, the cops will be here any minute," he ran his hand through Addison's hair, "hey there cutie pie."

He didn't give her time to respond before he jumped back into the van and it sped away.

It took the cops another ten minutes to arrive. They never did rush to a site in the Narrows; it just wasn't a top priority.

Allison stuck around knowing that the people in the bank would tell the cops about her and they would probably end up thinking she was abducted and then would be searching for her. Once they did start questioning her, they are disappointed her answers.

"So they just let you go?" the sergeant asked skeptically.

"Yes, they didn't say much something about it being too much of a risk, and they then hopped into their van and left, and before you ask, now I didn't see the make or the license plate. They ordered me to face the wall and not turn around."

"Did you see what any of them looked like?"

"Well no I was facing a brick wall, it doesn't exactly give a freaking reflection," yeah she was moody it had been a hell of a 24 hours, "look can I please just take my daughter home, I'm sorry that I don't know anything, but frankly I'm just happy we're both alive."

"Right of course we'll call you if we have more questions. Let me give you a ride home."

She nodded as the police officer led her and her daughter to the car. It was now late afternoon and the sun was already starting to set on Gotham city. Her thoughts went to Jack and she wondered if he had been one of the clowns she hadn't seen.

***

Nathan tossed the four bags of money on the desk in the Joker's…office, "Here it is, I have no idea how much, but they boys want to know how much they're getting."

The Joker cocked an eyebrow but didn't look up from his paper, "Tell them they get to uh stay alive tonight."

Nathan laughed in reply, "Alright, but I'm not finding more losers for the next job when they all walk out."

The Joker sighed in frustration, "keep some for you, oh and leave enough for me to get a new suit, and then give them the rest."

"Jack-"

"Don't call me that."

"Right, J, are you fucking serious, there're at least half a mil in those bags and you just want enough for a fucking suit?

"You need to uh expand your vocabulary, Naty and get a hearing aid." He tossed his pen down and abruptly shot his chair out and stood up, "it's not about the money, do you _know_ who owns that branch hm_ do you?_"

When the wanted fugitive didn't answer the Joker started laughing loudly, "it was the mob Naty. I'm sending them a message and the next robbery, I'll show them my face so they _know_ who is taking their precious money."

Nathan thought it over and it all made sense, hell he really liked the idea.

"So what are your future plans."

"No, no, no, **no** plans, I don't have a plan, maybe an um…huh _agenda_, like tomorrow I show my face at one of the bigger mob controlled banks, but how everything goes down, well _that _will be a surprise-ah."

He was relatively close to Nathan now, it was an intimidation factor, Nathan hated that it actually worked a little for him. Not nearly as much as the other guys, but this morning Nathan witnessed Jack's first murder. He killed one of the men for talking back to him. It wasn't that Jack had killed someone that made him uncomfortable; it was how easy and carelessly he had done it. If Nathan had thought about testing the waters he knew now not to.

The Joker looked long and hard over his friend before walking back over to his desk to contemplate some more.

It was then Nathan decided he had to tell Jack about Allison being at the bank today, before one of the goons did.

"Something happened while we were at the bank today."

The Joker started writing again and didn't stop at the statement, "What?" he snapped.

Nathan tensed slightly, he had no idea how the Joker was going to react to this, a part of him still wanted to get into a fist fight with him for knocking up his sister.

"Well, Allison happened to be there."

Nathan noted that he immediately stopped writing, he was waiting for him to continue, "I saw her yesterday when you got me out and she realized it was me today."

Oh no, now came an important decision he decided to test Jack's smarts and simply say, "I used her as a fake hostage to get us out of there untouched, and then let her go. She won't say anything, we already talked about that, but I didn't tell the guys about her being my sister so they were threatening to tattle on me like some fucking school-girls so I-"

"Why did you use _her _as a hostage was one of them about to shoot her-_**ah**_?"

Shit. Allison was going to kill him, but he couldn't stop himself.

"Well, J, there's something else I have to tell you."

***

Ding-dong.

"Addison! Come into the kitchen, pizza's here!"

The blonde opened the door to receive the pizza; she was too emotionally exhausted to cook dinner tonight. She handed the deliveryman the money and went back into the kitchen.

The two ate their pizza in silence, and it was killing Allison, she knew that her daughter had a lot of questions but just didn't want to ask.

"Honey, there are some things I think I should try and explain to you, even though it doesn't all make sense to me."

The three-year-old looked up at her mother, "is this about uncle Nathan at the bank?"

"Yes sweetie, what uncle Nathan did today was bad, it is against the law and if he was caught he would be put in jail, where the bad guys go. Mommy isn't a bad person but she still loves uncle Nathan, which is why she hasn't told on him. I just don't want you to think it's ok to do things like that, because it's not. Uncle Nathan is wrong and we won't support him, but we also won't turn him into the police. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense sweetie, but I wanted to try and explain it a little more to you, because I haven't been fair."

She spoke slowly but her daughter wasn't stupid, most children weren't. "So we protect our family," she finally said.

That was probably the easiest way to say it so the mother nodded, "Yes, baby, we protect our family."

Later, the two were on the couch watching a movie. Madagascar was one of Addison's favorites and Allison didn't mind it either.

They were both engrossed in the moving pictures until her door phone rang. She immediately froze up, who on earth would be here at this hour? She walked to the phone and picked it up, "Hello?"

"Hey Allison, it's me."

Her blood ran cold; she hit the button to open the main door and waited impatiently for to hear the footsteps down the hallway.

Addison was peaking at the door from the couch and Allison swung it open when she heard the footsteps approach the front door.

The man greeted her with a smile and she had mixed feelings.

"Bruce!" Addison screeched and jumped off the couch running towards the man. Allison took a step back as the toddler jumped at the man and he picked her up with ease, holding her in his arms.

"Hey Addie," he said simply hugging her close to him.

"Mommy didn't say you were coming over."

He set the girl down back on the floor and looked up at the blonde staring at him wide-eyed and he sense a little bit of frustration. "That's because she didn't know." His eyes didn't leave Allison's.

Allison broke her trance, "Addie, go watch your movie, mommy needs to talk to Bruce for a second."

The little girl's shoulders dropped, "Ok," she said simply walking back over to the TV.

Allison looked back at Bruce and turned from the door walking towards her bedroom. Bruce shut and locked the front door and followed her. She closed her bedroom door after he walked in and turned towards him as he sat on her bed.

"I thought you might be dead." She felt kind of numb.

"I know and I'm sorry, I lost everything in the fire, I actually had passed out in the house, Alfred found me and took me to the penthouse, I only felt well enough to leave tonight."

She nodded, "well I'm glad you're ok. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know."

She felt overwhelmed with emotion; she suddenly felt like some little secretary the big billionaire liked to have when it was convenient. She turned back towards her door just wanted to not be in the same room with him like this when he came up behind her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

"Ally you're the first person I came to see."

It was like he read her mind and in a way he had. It killed him that he couldn't tell the whole truth and he knew she would think she meant little to him, but it really was the opposite. There was still Rachel, but Allison was different. Rachel was someone from his past he could lean on, Allison felt refreshing like something from the future. He wasn't clear on which he wanted more, but regardless he still had strong feelings.

The first tear fell and she let herself lean into him. He kissed the side of her head in a loving fashion; it was unlike the friendly pecks he had given her before. She turned around towards him and leaned into his chest.

"I put you through that much stress huh?"

She sniffled a little and pulled away looking him in the eye, "You have no idea."

It was then he looked her over. Her long blonde hair was set atop her head in a message bun. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He makeup was all worn off except a little bit of mascara that was now starting to run from her tears and he had never been so attracted to her.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers and she couldn't help but respond. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her body closer into his. His hands moved to sit gently on her waist as his fingers played with the ends of her shirt. Despite popular belief it had been a long time since he had been with a woman and had Allison not pulled away from him, he would've taken her right now.

"I can't," she was more or less talking to herself but the message held true both ways.

"I know, I'm sorry."

Her eyes shot to his, "No, no don't be sorry, it's just I have to be careful, I have Addison I can't be a normal 23-year-old and act on hormones, it's kind of what got me trouble in the first place."

The billionaire laughed and kissed the top of the young woman's forehead, "well if that time does come, we'll be much more careful."

She tried to hide the blush that crept to her cheeks and gave him a small smile, "So, uh, how do you feel about Madagascar?"

***

The Joker's eyes were probably darker then they had ever been. He was trying very hard to absorb all the information he had received. No, not the information it was the emotions that were associated with it. He had hoped it would all be indifference.

If the information had stopped with Allison knowing about Nathan, then maybe he could've pulled off his indifference for a little while. It was Addison. How did he not think about protection when he fucked her?

He couldn't be a father no, no, no, no. At the same time this was as much his fault as it was hers and why should she have to raise the kid on her own?

_Because she would be better off without you_, a voice told him. Yes the kid would be better off without him, but could he stay away from Allison? If he never had run into her or even heard that she knew he was back then he could've stayed away. Now he wasn't so sure and especially not with the inside information he had learned today.

Allison Cambelle, the only girl Jack Napier had really given the time of day. It bothered him that even as the Joker he wanted to give her the same attention. He wondered what she looked like. Was she still that lanky teenager or did she look like a woman now?

Nathan cleared his throat causing the Joker to look up at him. As much as he was dreading it, he was also curious as to the events that were going to unfold.

"Well _hum_ that puts me in a bit of a pre-dic-a-men**t**. See I happen to know, that tomorrow the city, starting with the Narrows is going to get a pesky fear toxin released into the airways, which is why we were leaving tomorrow, _but_ now we have a change of plans-ah."

He lifted off his worn suit coat and put in on getting ready to leave, "Did you uh, leave my card like I asked?"

He was referring to the Joker card he had given Nathan to leave at the bank.

Nathan, unsure of his reaction to what he just told him nodded dumbly, "Where are you going?"

The Joker looked at him like he was a moron, "Well, uh, I'm going to get your sister and my kid of course-ah."

**Alright this one was quick too, but I can't guarantee fast updates like this all the time. Allison and Jack/Joker will meet in the next chapter, but please review. If you're a writer then you know how encouraging reviews can be, so I would really appreciate you taking the time to leave one. Even if it's just a simple "I like it" "Update soon", or "****" I don't really care. I do give long responses to those who leave longer reviews, I usually run my mouth too much and probably give too much away but oh well. **


	7. Always Fear the Hot Blonde

Sorry about the wait! It wasn't intentional by any means. I've been really busy with school and pretty sick for the past couple of days. I'm still up in arms about this chapter I just want to make a couple things clear since the Joker is making his appearance.

I do hope my Joker isn't OOC; however, I think we all need to keep in mind that we never saw the Nolan Joker in a romance, we can only speculate what he would've been like.

Allison and Nathan (and soon Addison) are the closest thing the Joker has to family. When I say family I mean people he _actually_ cares about, so clearly his attitude could be a little different around them. Knives aren't going to be put to their throats a lot if ever.

I hope this goes without saying, but Allison is the Joker's kryptonite. That was never meant to be a mystery in my story. She is his ultimate weakness; this will play into the story on many levels. I will try to really portray that in the way I write, but I don't want a whole bunch of whinny people who don't understand what Allison means to the Jack and then in turn the Joker.

I'm open to any suggestions on how to make my Joker character better, but please offer me some examples. "Your Joker's not that good" doesn't really help me that much.

Now onto my favorite people; my reviewers thanks so much to: **alys98, .Rain.x3, Affectionate-Sinner, Lurky McLurker, TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, creative-writing-girl13, PreciousRaymond, Amanda, Laurel, juicycouturevalerie, **and **Straight Edge Queen**

**Happy Reading!**

*******

Bruce had left just after the movie ended. Addison had fallen asleep in his lap during the last half hour of the movie and it made Allison's heart melt to watch him carry the toddler to her room and tuck her into bed.

It was clear that Addison adored Bruce; she liked him in the first week of knowing him, before even Allison was sure that _she_ did.

The little girl did need a male figure in her life, Allison knew that, but she hadn't known Bruce that long.

She was now relaxing in her bed, taking her time falling asleep. She had her window cracked open as rain poured out into the city streets. The nice thing about this part of the city was that somewhat quiet at night, just a car passing here and there.

When she heard something at the front door, her heart stilled. It couldn't be Bruce; he had left nearly an hour ago.

"Nathan," she huffed to herself getting out of bed. She grabbed a crowbar that she kept by her bedroom door just incase, after all she had no way of knowing who actually was picking at the door.

She stood behind it so when she opened it, the door would serve as a shield. She slowly undid the chain at the top and then quickly unlocked the deadbolt and swung the door open and sure enough her brother fell on the floor over the threshold.

"Ouch, god what the fuck?!" he growled placing his hands on the ground and lifting himself from the floor.

"Are you serious?" Allison hissed hitting him with the crowbar hard enough so he would surely feel it but not to actually hurt him, "you just tried breaking into my apartment…again."

"Well," he began brushing himself off, "I thought you might be sleeping."

"Ok, so the logically thing to do would be to check, and if I didn't answer you go away and come back in the morning. Actually you shouldn't be here at all Nathan."

He looked frustrated and gripped her arm taking her into her bedroom so he could close the door.

"Look there isn't a lot of time to explain all this to you so you need to shut your mouth and listen."

Allison scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "No _you_ listen, Nathan. You might be my brother but today was ridiculous, I can't believe you are robbing banks in clown masks. Is he seriously making you do that? You know what I don't even want to know, from this moment on, you are **not** welcome here Nathan, I will not have you around me and influence Addie in any way. If you turn yourself in I might consider coming to visit you and bringing her to see you, but do not come around here anymore!"

She tried really hard to keep her voice quiet at the end, but it proved to not work so well. Nathan looked at her amused and slowly chuckled, "Are you done?"

"Get the fuck out of here Nathan."

"Sure thing, Ally, you just get Addison and come right along with me."

Allison's stomach sank, come with him? She didn't know whether to laugh of have an anxiety attack.

"Look, Jack's downstairs and he isn't exactly patient. I convinced him to let me come get you because he was just going to break down the door and drag you both out. I told him that might cause some problems so here I am, but we only got a couple more minutes. Something is going to happen to the city tomorrow it's an airborne toxin through the water supply, but more importantly I need to tell you about what happened to Jack. He's a lot different now Al, he doesn't go by Jack anymore, it's the Joker, he's got two scares on either side of his mouth courtesy of Hector's cousins. He wears face paint to scare the shit out of people and it works. He's just not the same ok? But he's taking you and Addison out of here whether you like it or not so it's best just to grab the kid and tell her something then have him come in her and drag you both out of here."

Jesus, that was a mouthful. He was practically gasping for air at the end as Allison had a dumbfounded look on her face. She finally broke her blank stare and started laughing.

"Is this some kind of sick joke? I'm not going anywhere with you or Jack, thanks for giving me the heads up about tomorrow but I'm not taking my daughter to leave town with her absent father, who you seem to be telling me is some kind of freak. So you can just waltz yourself back to Jack and tell him to fuck off too because I don't need either of your help to raise Addison she doesn't need to be around either of you or your _activities_."

Suddenly a loud cackle was heard from the bedroom door and the siblings turned their attention to see the Joker stand in the doorway. Fear ran down Allison's spine just looking at him. His head was thrown back as he continued laughing but she should distinctly see the scars on either side of his mouth that were covered in red paint.

Nathan was more worried about how he would react to the situation once he stopped laughing.

When the Joker abruptly stopped he looked at the blonde with his head cocked, "Well now that was exactly the kind of welcome I was expecting from you and ho, ho, ho, do I wish I would've been here for the whole thing. I bet _that_ was really colorful."

Allison found herself completely frozen in place, her eyes locked with his. The two shared a moment together with their eyes but the Joker's face held an amused expression it was basically…evil.

"Hey bea_u_tiful," he tongue ran across his bottom lip, a habit he always had but now it seemed creepier with his new getup.

When she didn't respond he let out a low chuckle and walked closer to her, "so what is this about you _not_ coming _hm_?"

"I-I-I don't need-," the words wouldn't leave her mouth she was till much too stunned looking at the man in front of her.

"Y-Y-You don't need what…you seem uh…nervous is it the scars? I thought **you** of all people would be able to look past them _Ace_."

She shivered at her old nickname. Once Jack had learned her full name, Allison Eve Cambelle, he had switched her middle and last initial to come up with Ace, he didn't call her that often usually when he was mocking her…like now.

To be honest she was more concerned with his scars then afraid of them. It must have been beyond painful and although it was irrational, Allison almost felt guilty as though she should've been there for him.

The man now standing nearly a foot from here didn't really look anything like Jack, but she tried to convince herself that it was to settle the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"No," she said softly looking to the ground and then back to his eyes, "you and Nathan need to leave, I don't need your help."

The Joker was immensely annoyed. It wasn't really an option and he didn't understand why she didn't seem to comprehend that.

"Na-than," the Joker sang still looking Allison directly in the eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Go get the kid, oh and try not to scare her I don't need her screaming all the way there."

Without hesitation Nathan turned on his heel and walked out of the bedroom door to get Addison.

Allison didn't miss a beat either, she lunged after Nathan, but the Joker shot an arm out to stop her and pulled her closer to him, "Ah ta ta, be a good girl Ace, now are you going to cooperate or freak out and scare the kid."

"I'm going to fucking kill Nathan," she muttered under her breath. Her body was still facing the door but she was being held back.

"Just wait till we get to the hotel, I don't want blood all over my ride," his voice was serious but he was joking, Allison was used to this kind of behavior.

She hit him hard across the chest, "you better not hurt my daughter."

This brought out a low chuckle from deep in his throat that reminded her of what she used to low, but the dark sinister voice that followed wasn't exactly familiar.

"Your daughter? Last time I checked she was _our_ daughter, unless you became asexual somehow-_ah_"

With that he hoisted her over his shoulder as she nearly screamed and probably would have if his shoulder didn't cut off her air supply. When she finally could catch her breath she was almost lost for words. Her biggest childhood crush, father of her child, and now seemingly a complete stranger had her draped over his shoulder like a dead fox as he carried her out of her bedroom.

As she was carried to the living room she saw Addison's door open and she was holding onto Nathan's hand as he held her pink Barbie™ suitcase in the other. She looked at the two adults in front of her curiously.

"Mommy, what are you doing?" she looked back at Nathan, "is that the man you said was my daddy?"

The Joker stopped walking and sighed at the little girl's question. Allison's glare to her brother was cut off when the Joker spun around to give his old friend a glare of his own.

Nathan just shrugged, "It was the only way I could think to get her to come without crying and Christ, J, could you please put my sister down."

"I would like to second that," the blonde girl said from over the clown's shoulder.

"Fiiine," the Joker whined sarcastically nearly dropping Allison on the floor, but holding his arm out last minute to steady her. She had her sights set onto her daughter but as she tried to rush to her, Jack captured her with his arm and held her back against his chest, "no, no, no Ace, not yet. Not until we get into the van."

The little girl was still starring wide-eyed at the man with his face painted. This was her dad? She wasn't sure what to think about that, she hadn't seen people with their face painted like that. Of course, three-year-olds were much more accepting of people then adults.

She had already fallen in love with her uncle Nathan; he was easy to like. Probably because he acted much like a child himself, but Addison didn't make that connection. Not at this age.

"Now, you're going to walk on out of here vol-un-tari_ly_, understood?"

Not knowing what else to do, Allison just nodded.

The ride in the van was relatively silent. Allison had convinced the Joker to let her grab a few things and lock up her apartment properly so the cops wouldn't stop by and be suspicious. They were driving to small town 20 miles outside of Gotham. The town consisted simply of a motel, diner, thrift stores, and a very old vintage movie theatre.

Currently they were pulling into the motel parking lot, Addison asleep on Allison's lap. The Joker was driving and Nathan was seated next to him in the passenger seat. Allison would glance up often to look at Jack through the rearview mirror. His eyes were the exact same, it made it easy for her to look past the scars and makeup.

It would completely unrealistic to say she wasn't frightened, of course she was; however, the most dominant thing she felt was curiosity. How in the world did he become this way?

Why the makeup, why the outfit?

Was it simply a direct cause of getting the scars?

She knew that it must have been traumatizing receiving them; he was lucky to be alive.

Jack had looked up at her a couple of times, catching her looking at him and each time an amused smirk would show on his face. The first time Allison blushed and then put her attention towards her daughter, but the second time she was almost annoyed. The look he gave her made her feel like they were kids again. She was suddenly sixteen years old looking at her 21-year-old crush that took advantage of her and played with her adolescent feelings. Finally she was old enough to realize that and was determined that this time would be different. He wasn't going to be able to play her like a puppet.

She was going to make sure of that.

"Alright time for a Chinese fire drill-_ah_," the Joker giggled and bounced out of the drive seat and slid open the back door, "alright, Al you and Nathan get to play house, won't that be _fun_!"

Nathan crawled over into the driver seat and Allison gave Jack an annoyed look before carefully sliding past him into the passenger seat. The Joker rolled his eyes at the blonde and plopped himself into the back.

Nathan drove up to the front of the motel to check in, "Alright Ally, just stay here and don't look so depressed."

"I'm not depressed I'm annoyed," she muttered as her brother got out of the van. Addison was still very much asleep. Neither of them saw the Joker looking at the sleeping child. He was taking time studying her and much to his dismay she did look quite a bit like him.

Part of him wanted to reach out and touch her soft pale cheek, but more to just make sure she was real. Instead he just sat in the back growing impatient like always.

Allison could see Nathan talking to the man behind the front desk and all she could think about was getting to sleep. She felt like, if possible, she could sleep for a whole week.

The man behind the front desk looked at the blonde and she gave him a convincing smile before looking down at Addison.

Soon the three of them were making their way into the motel room, which was not impressive. Two double beds with tacky floral sheets, a TV that was at least 20 years old and a less than clean looking bathroom.

Nathan pulled back the covers of one of the beds and Allison inspected the bed before laying her sleeping daughter into it.

"Now neither of you better wake her up or you get to entertain her until she's tired again."

"Are you giving me an order, Ace?"

She looked up at Jack, slinging her overnight bag over her shoulder, "Yes".

He cocked his head to the side as he watched her enter the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Nathan snorted before flicking on the television and sitting on the bed opposite of Addison, "I want to make something clear to you, J, I might be your little pawn now, and that's fine I really don't have anything else to do anyway, but you better not hurt my sister…ever. I'll attack you and you might kill me, but I'll take you down with me."

Not once did Nathan look up from the TV as he made his passive threat. He was dead serious. Let Jack or the Joker or whoever the fuck he was play with him, but not Allison, he always wanted better for her.

The Joker tried to contain his cackling extremely amused, "Oh, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, do you really think I would have gone through all this trouble to _hurt_ young Allison? No, no, no, she's too much fun to hurt and killing her would remind me too much of my father and we both know that I **hate** him." His voice was dangerously low.

"Alright, man, I was just letting you know."

"Yeah, well you might want to watch the _threats_ because I don't like them. Not one bit. Now get off my bed."

"I'm not sleeping on this shitty ass floor."

"Then I don't know, sleep with your niece."

"Then where the hell will Allison sleep?"

The Joker scoffed as he kicked off his shoes, "She'll sleep with you and the kid, it will be nice and cozy. It's not like she'll want to sleep with a _freak _like me."

He tried to make it seem like a joke, but it didn't really come off that way and he didn't know that Allison had heard him from the bathroom. She figured that above all else this might be the way to get the upper hand with him.

She was now a curvy beautiful woman, no longer the skin and bones she once was. That was probably going to be the best way to get to him.

When she emerged from the bathroom Nathan was already snoring lightly next to Addison. It was sort of picturesque, the toddler and her uncle were both in the same position completely conked out.

Jack looked to be sleeping, but it was hard to tell. His makeup was smeared and revealed much of his face. Allison ached to wash it all off and see what he really looked like, but that was for another time.

Ready to set her plan in motion she slid under the covers next to Jack. Turning on her side with her back facing him, she was unsettled with how comfortable and at home she felt.

**As always, I would really appreciate if you would review.**


	8. People Change

_Yes I know I could spend a whole three paragraphs explaining the delay but I'll just give you two reasons: Life and writer's block. _

_This chapter might seem flip floppy and that's because it is. It has proven harder then I expected to start this Joker/Allison relationship. They both have extremely mixed feelings about each other and it almost gave me a headache writing it. The next chapter will jump some time to move the plot along because I know you must be anxious to get to the romance part and because I take so long to update I don't want to make you guys wait much longer. _

_Thank you to: _**TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, Laurel, creatice-writing-girl13, shadowflame89, ujemaima, **and **Straight Edge Queen **_for your reviews you really don't know how big a part you are for each chapter, especially when I'm suffering from writer's block._

**Happy Reading!**

Contrary to what one might think, the Joker had no problems sleeping. He slept lightly, and was still very much aware of what as around him, but he _did _sleep.

Just not tonight.

Once the blonde settled into the bed lying next to him it took merely seconds before he realized he was holding his breath. He wondered what game she was playing. There was no way she could still look at him the same.

She probably just thought she was being nice and mature by pretending his appearance didn't frighten her. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

It would be disappointing if she wasn't scared of him. He was actually counting on it. Truthfully it would make it easier to deal with her if that's the way she felt. He hoped she'd never know it but she was the only girl he actually…_cared_ for. Just thinking the word made him nauseous. Caring for a person was a weakness. It gave his enemies something to take from him and he was certainly going to make sure they didn't find out about the kid.

Maybe he'd tell his goons that she was a stray that Allison picked up off the street. They just might be dumb enough to buy it.

He thought about climbing out of bed and going for a walk, but he knew she was probably still awake and that would merely make her think she had leverage on him…then again maybe it would hurt her feelings that he didn't want to share a bed with her.

God, all of this was giving him a migraine.

In an attempt to affectively distract himself, he thought about his future ideas. He didn't like to call them plans. No, he liked to let the chips fall where they may, but it didn't mean he couldn't shake things up a bit. In a week he would be revealing himself to the public for the first time. It had only been cards for a couple months now in low-key banks and murders that had been committed by his goons. It was time for the ringmaster to finally make his appearance.

Sure enough, the excitement of these future events made him feel content and for a brief moment Allison Cambelle slipped his mind. Unfortunately for the Joker she wouldn't stay out of his dreams that night.

***

The next morning would've been extremely awkward had it not been for Addison. Like any three year old, she wasn't tainted with the stresses of the world that made mornings a dread, plus she had enough energy to rotate the earth for a day so when Allison woke from a light bouncing on the bed she wasn't surprised.

It had happened many times back at her apartment, but it wasn't until Allison finally opened her eyes and realized that she wasn't in her apartment and this wasn't her bed that panic set in.

She shot up and grabbed Addison who screeched in delight thinking her mommy was tickling her like she did many times.

"Addison, you have to be quiet," she whispered in the little girl's ear kissing her on the cheek.

"I already woke daddy up, and he just looked at me and turned over going back to sleep, uncle Nathan wouldn't wake up no matter how hard I jumped, so I had to get you up mommy."

Allison swallowed hard on the word daddy, but couldn't deny it. She just had hoped the child had forgotten about what she was told yesterday.

She looked over at Jack who had a back to her but she could tell from the shallow breathing that he wasn't sleeping. Nathan on the other hand was flat on his back, eyes closed, mouth open, and light snore was elicited from his mouth.

"Why don't you try to get uncle Nathan up again?" she suggested to the little girl with a mischievous look on her face.

Addison returned the same look and slid of the bed scurrying back over to her bed.

She leaned closer to Jack so her would hear her and said a soft "sorry."

When he didn't responded she explained that Addison was a morning person and was accustomed to waking her up that way.

The Joker shifted to his back and looked at the blonde, not liking the excitement that ran through his stomach from seeing her in the same bed with him.

"She's obnoxious," he growled, his voice low and hoarse from just waking up.

"Well she's three," Allison defended passively with a soft huff. It was almost easy for her to forget that the man lying next to her had two gruesome scars and was masked with face paint, which was severely faded.

She threw the covers off her body and got out of bed. The Joker's eyes followed her as she rummaged through her overnight bag and pulled out two toothbrushes and toothpaste.

She beckoned the little girl who was still bouncing on the bed with no response from her uncle other then a soft groan.

The Joker allowed his gaze to discreetly follow the two into the bathroom before looking over at Nathan.

"Get up." It wasn't said loudly but was clearly a demand and Nathan opened one eye looking back at his boss.

"What the fuck time is it anyway?" He lifted himself up and glanced at the clock, "no one should be up this early."

"Well you can talk to the kid about that-uh," he climbed out of bed and put his suit jacket back on, feeling a little less vulnerable. He reached into the pocket and pulled out a wade of cash, he really had no idea how much it was.

He tossed it at Nathan, who was sitting up, but still in his bed, "go get some food. Make sure it's something the kid will like, I don't want to hear her cry and whine she's already quite uh _annoying._"

Nathan cocked an eyebrow at his friend. He had only been "working" for him for three days and already he noticed a difference in his behavior around Allison.

Opting not to say anything, he took the money and got out of bed himself. "Are we just staying in here for the day?"

"Is that a problem?" Why did he have to ask so many questions?

"It's not, if you're worried about the kid getting annoying, I'm going to get some shit that might keep her occupied, you can't expect a three-year-old to sit in a 15 by 15 room all day without something to do."

"I'll just let her play with my knives."

Nathan couldn't hold back a glare as he slipped on his shoes, "I'll get shit for her to do."

The Joker merely grunted as Nathan walked out the door shoving the money in his pocket.

"Mommy, mommy, I did good, didn't I?" he heard the girl squeal from the bathroom.

"Yeah baby, soon you won't need mommy's help at all, now come on wash your hands, remember?"

He heard the sink turn on and the toilet flush. Jesus, they had been in there that long waiting for the kid to piss?

As soon as the door flew open the mop of blonde curls come trotting out. It was his hair, there was no denying that; thick, curly, and dark blonde. He refused to accept that this child was his, but it didn't mean he could deny it.

The little girl look warily at the man she had already started calling dad. She was smart probably smarter then she should be at her age, but he wasn't any different when he was younger. He couldn't remember a time when innocence had visited his life.

At this time he just wished he hadn't fucked Allison. It was moment of weakness and now the kid was a permanent reminder of that. It was pitiful that couldn't blame it on being a dumb teenager, he was 23 when Addison was conceived, he was full aware of what he was doing.

Damn it.

"Addison get your clothes from your bag-" Allison stopped when she saw him standing there, "I thought you left."

He shook his head, "Clearly not-ah."

"Right," she snapped not amused by his sarcastic attitude. There was probably a little bit of an eye-roll mixed in there too, but that was habit of hers so she could never really tell.

She brushed past him, their shoulders barely touching, but it was enough to make him get that uncomfortable feeling. He watched her grab both hers and Addison's overnight bag.

"Where did my brother go?"

"To get food."

He was being short, he decided the less he talked to her the better.

"Oh, ok."

He looked towards the door; he had to leave, if even just for a moment. She was already proving to him that she was a weakness and being alone…well…almost alone in this room with her was becoming too much.

"I'm going for a walk," he licked his bottom lip looking up at her, "don't think about leaving. I won't be far enough for you to be able to anyway."

She scoffed and grabbed the kid's arm tugging her back into the bathroom.

***

It was late in the afternoon and the group of four was lounging about. Nathan was trying to teach Addison how to play go fish and although she was smart the cards seemed to be confusing her.

Luckily Nathan was patient and didn't mind if she made a mistake. The Joker was running his thumb along the blade of his knife. Allison was sitting on the soul chair, which left a lot to be desired, flipping through channels.

Then her phone went off.

Allison jumped up and ran to the nightstand where her phone was practically having a seizure. As soon as she reached it the Joker gripped her around waist pulling her onto the bed.

"Ah-ta-ta, let daddy see who it is fiiiiiiiiiiiirst-ah."

He rolled her to the other side of him and reached for her phone. Like a teenager defending her most prized possession, Allison crawled across him, gripping her phone trying to pull it from him.

"Give me my phone, Jack!"

He inwardly grimaced at his name but kept his composure.

"Uh…no _Allison_." He said her name the way she said his…high voice and all.

As though she was completely back in time, she remaindered an earlier defense mechanism when being picked on by him. One hand still gripping her phone, she jabbed him hard on his inner thigh near his groin.

Instinctively he left go of the phone and jolted away from her resulting in him to fall off the bed. Allison quickly flipped the phone open, ignoring Nathan's snort and Addison's giggle.

"Hello," she answered breathlessly.

"Hey, where are you?" the familiar voice answered back. It was Bruce and he sounded worried; his voice urgent.

Shit. She hadn't thought of a cover, "Um, I'm in Berkley, with Addison, I decided to take her to the zoo today."

"Good, Allison, please don't ask me to explain, but I need you and Addison to stay out there for awhile. I've heard some rumors that something's going to happen here tonight, you can't come back. Ok? Please listen to me. Have you talked to Janet and Dornan?"

Allison sat there stunned…how in the world did he know this too?

"T-T-They're in the Bahamas. What about you are you going to l-leave, I can meet you at a hotel. We-"

"No. Allison, I have to stay here, but don't worry, I'll be ok…I think." He didn't sound too sure of himself, his "I think" was meant to be too quiet for her to hear, but she did.

"O-Ok, please be careful Bruce."

"I will Al, just have a good time with Addison for the day."

"Ok, we will."

She wouldn't be the one to day goodbye, because by the ton of his voice there was a chance that this would be the last one. Remembering her surroundings she tried not to cry, but her anxiety was very apparent. She hoped he wouldn't say hang up, or that he would change his mind and get out of the city, but then it came.

"Goodbye Allison."

It was like he wanted to say more, but couldn't get the words out. She wondered if she should be the one to tell him to leave, maybe that's what he wanted. She couldn't though, her father's daughter who know was involved with a life of crime and had some clown obsession had taken her, basically against her will. She doubted Jack and Bruce would lounge together and watch the big game.

It was after she placed her phone on the bed in front of her she realized Jack was sitting on the bed across from her, a dark twinge in his eyes.

She pushed him around and what was making him most upset was the fact that he _let_ her.

Allison felt intense embarrassment as reality came back to her. She wasn't sixteen fooling around with her brother's best friend. She was 23 sitting across from a man who ripped off mobsters and wore face paint.

"Ohhh Nathan," he sung, still looking at Allison.

"Why don't you take the child for a walk so her mommy and I can have a uh chat."

Her heart started pumping a little fast as she looked over at Nathan who was also looking at Jack slightly panicked. The only reason the adults remained calmed was for the child, who still playing around with the cards, not aware of the conversation in front of her.

"Go ahead, Nate, take her for a walk," Allison said, looking back at Jack, deciding it was best to not make Addison worried.

The little girl looked up at her mother and then to her uncle, "We're going for a walk uncle Nathan?"

"Yeah, kid, let's go," he stood up and took the little girl in his arms, grabbing a jacket for her on his way out. Once the door shut, Allison looked back at Jack who was still staring at her.

After a few seconds of silence, which felt like hours, the Joker licked his bottom lip and sucked in a breath.

"Now," he began, slapping his hands onto his knees, "I think we need to uh…clarify something. See I'm not…I'm **not**, Jack anymore. I uh tried to explain this to you bef_ore _but I think more drastic measures are _uh_ required."

It seemed like in one fluid motion his hand went into his pocket a knife popped out and he pushed her down onto the bed and was on top of her.

Fear shot down her spine and she felt almost paralyzed. He sat on her thighs; his body leaned towards her as he pushed the knife against her neck.

"You see _Al _although my current focus is pissing off the mob, you need to understand that I uh, well I have no problem running this knife across any 'innocent' person's neck. Death is like a fun game for me, I don't mind causing it and I'll finding ways to _cheat _it."

He emphasized the endings of almost every word and leaned in closer pushing the knife just a little harder onto her skin.

"See, sweetheart, Jack doesn't live here anymore."

Finally finding some courage she found words.

"Would you kill me, Jack? I'm an 'innocent' person aren't I?"

He was taken aback, maybe not so much by the question but the lack of fear in her voice when she asked it.

The look of hesitation in his eyes was enough of an answer for her and she pushed him off of her, getting to her feet as quickly as possible.

Jack was still sitting on his knees, knife in hand as he watched the blonde place her hands on her hips.

"I know you aren't the same, the face paint on your fucking face makes that pretty clear, but don't pretend like I'm just a nobody to you. You went out of your way to get me and Addison to protect us from whatever it is that is evading Gotham tonight, and psychopathic or not, you seem to care about me. So don't you dare try to scare me with your fucking knives, Jack Napier."

She stormed towards the one chair in the room where her jacket was draped and grabbed it. As she opened up the door she turned to him where he now standing from the bed.

"The next time Gotham is being poisoned just pick up the damn phone and call."

With that she slammed the door so hard it shook the room and left the Joker furious.

He needed to get out of here and away from her.

He needed to kill someone.

**I know I don't deserve it, but as always I would love reviews. I'm curious how you felt about this chapter. Also I feel the need to apologize for any grammatical errors, I'm my own editor. **

**Also as I'm sure you know. The 2-year anniversary of Heath Ledger's death is Friday so that was part of my motivation to update. **


	9. Ignorance is Bliss

I got this one out quick, because it just happened that way. This is in a sense a filler chapter designed mainly to move the plot along. We jump some times again so we are about a quarter way into _The Dark Knight _and the plot will somewhat follow it. I think it falls into place nicely.

As always thank you to: **Laurel, Affectionate-Sinner, TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, ujemaima, crazikido2, live-yOur-fAntasY, **and **Straight Edge Queen**. You all are awesome especially those of you who review nearly every chapter.

I always like to remind you that I am my own editor, I am not perfect and this will never be published so please forgive my mistakes.

**Happy Reading!**

**W**hen Allison returned to the motel room with Nathan and Addison the Joker was gone. He left money on the table along with the keys to the truck and a very strongly worded note to Nathan giving him directions to stay for another night and then take the mother and daughter home.

Allison couldn't decide if she was relieved or upset that he had left. Sure he had put a knife to her throat but she had cooled off once she got to the room and now she wasn't sure she would ever see him again. She tried to convince herself that that's what she wanted and it would be best for Addison, who asked where he was within five minutes of them getting back.

Instead of answering, Allison distracted her with a movie.

It had been **one month** since Gotham had got dosed with the fear toxin. The police department was calling it a terrorist attack and anyone affect by the toxin went to the hospital to get the antidote that was suspiciously found the day of. Although all of the Narrows had been affected Batman was able to save the day and stop it from spreading to Wayne tower, which was the center of the city.

Bruce had called Allison two days later to tell her it was safe to return, but she already knew that and was on her way home. Nathan was livid at Jack, but did go back to him.

Allison explained to Nathan that as long as he was going to do whatever it is he was doing, he was _not _welcome around Addison. He wasn't happy, but agreed and made Allison give him her phone number so if he knew something was going to happen he could at least call and get her and Addison out of town.

Allison insisted she get his so she knew it was him calling.

When Allison returned to work she was delighted to know that Mr. Fox was the new CEO and she was now his assistant and was given a hefty promotion. She thought it was too much, but Bruce assured her she would have much more to do and the raise was worth it.

He was right.

She loved her job now but some days just didn't seem to end. Not to mention that Bruce was trying to get closer to her. It only bothered her because she knew he wasn't talking to his old friend (any maybe something more), Rachel, anymore. Once he found out that she was dating Gotham's new DA, Harvey Dent, he really hit the gas and was constantly asking to take her everywhere. She appreciated the companionship, but wished he would be with her because he actually wanted to be.

Jack, aka the Joker had also made his first broadcast news appearance. Allison almost choked on her food when she saw his freshly painted face come onto the screen at dinnertime. He looked absolutely terrifying. The worst part of it was he was clearly having fun. His new obsession was the Batman. He had already killed one imposter on television. Luckily Addison hadn't seen any of this yet. She still asked about him from time to time but Allison just made up the excuse that he was away on business. Plus Bruce seemed to be a good fill in for the father figure whether he wanted to or not. Truthfully that scared Allison to death.

What if Bruce just decided to leave; become nothing more then just a boss?

Worst of all what if Allison got old enough to understand that she lacked a father. At this point she didn't even consider Jack taking that role, not after everything that happened. He had moved on from the mob and was know murdering innocent people.

She wanted to throw her TV out of the window just so Addison would never have to see it.

Surprisingly the thought to move hadn't crossed her mind…yet. Even if she had, it was one of those situations where you really shouldn't look, don't want to look, but you just have to.

***

_Currently_ Allison was outside of Mr. Fox's office, typing up a couple of emails for him. Bruce currently had a big potential client, a Mr. Lau from Japan. Allison didn't care to understand all the details of every deal made, but this one did seem to make Lucius and Bruce uncomfortable. Through the glass of the conference room, Allison could see Bruce was sleeping, that Lau character was talking, and Lucius was standing at the head of the table listening.

Allison glanced back down to the computer screen glancing up at the sleeping Bruce every now and then.

He was always so tired.

Anytime he would come into the office he was usually late not to mention tired.

It didn't take a genius to know something was different with him. It was that way ever since she met him, but now her suspicions were worse.

It didn't help that as soon as she saw the meeting was over she walked into the conference room to ask Lucius what else he wanted to her to do because right when she walked in Bruce and Lucius abruptly stopped talking and they both looked at her.

"Um, sorry, I just wanted to let you know that I sent those emails and I was going to take my lunch now, if that's alright."

Lucius smiled warmly as if she hadn't interrupted at all, "That's fine Allison, thank you."

She gave a meek smile to Lucius and looked at Bruce who looked like he was caught in the act, but masked it with a grin. She tried to hide a look of annoyance but it might have slightly slipped as she turned on her heel to leave.

Once back at her desk she grabbed her coat and purse and when she spun around to go towards the elevators she nearly bumped into Mr. Wayne, himself.

"Hey," she said before starting to talk around him.

"Hey," he replied gently grabbing her upper arm to stop her from leaving, "let me take you out to lunch."

She really didn't want to, she just planned to grab something quick out of cafeteria, not to mention she was annoyed with always feeling like she was interrupting him.

Nevertheless he was her boss and saying no just didn't seem right.

"Sure, that'd be great."

He smiled and led her to the elevators.

While at lunch, Allison kept relatively quiet. Bruce was asking her about Addison, Janet and Dornan. Allison cringed when he brought Rachel up and how he ran into her and Harvey Dent.

"I'm sorry for bringing this up," he said noticing her discomfort, "I just wanted to tell you that I actually kind of like Harvey. I think he's just what this city needs."

Allison looked at him skeptically over her menu, "Really? I thought you would hate his guts, plus I heard that you had that prima ballerina from Russia or whatever with you? That wasn't on purpose?"

He took a sip of his water and once he set it down he leaned in a little closer to her.

"You know it wasn't. I talk to you all the time about how I have to maintain this stupid billionaire thing. People expect me to be a playboy and a bachelor. If I started bring you around…well, I'm doing you a favor, the tabloids would never leave you alone. Why do you think we came into this restaurant from the back and have a private room? I don't want this boss secretary thing starting."

Allison scoffed and rolled her eyes, "First off, I'm an assistant, not a secretary, second of all, I've been in the tabloids since I was like six, third of all, I'll decide if I want paparazzi following me, and fourth of all, Mr. Wayne you are full of so much bullshit. I'm starting to wonder if you are pretending anymore, Bruce. Maybe you are taking this billionaire act to heart," she whispered the last part as the waitress walked in to take their order.

Bruce looked at her while she ordered almost taken aback by her words. He only looked away to place his order and waited until the waitress let the room with their menus.

"You really think that?" He finally said, not able to hide the hurt in his voice.

Allison, as stubborn as she was, refused to feel sorry for him, "You certainly don't tell me everything anymore. I used to think you did, but you're hiding something from me, you probably have been for some time now, but it's getting worse," she laughed to herself, "it's funny, I'm started to feel like you think I am some dumb blonde or something."

She leaned closer to him and in a harsh whisper she spook with clear articulation, "Do you think I don't notice the fact that you come in tired every morning, that some days you're extremely sore, and that you and Lucius stop talking or quickly change the subject every time I enter the room?"

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest.

He sat their speechless; it was probably one of the first times she had seen him not having an excuse. This time though, he was looking at her as if he was waiting for her to continue, like what she said was supposed to make her come to some big conclusion.

"Think about it Allison," her suspicions were confirmed, "you'll figure it all out."

He didn't say it with a condescending tone, but she took it that way.

They sat in silence while their food came. Allison continued to maul over the details trying to see if there was something figure out. Right now though she just thought he was an asshole.

As she continued to go through all the times he had left, came back sore and tired, or stopped talking when she entered the room, it was when she got the phone call from him while she was at the motel that made her finally connect the dots. Of course she had always wondered why he hadn't left and just accepted that he wanted to stay in the city that his father practically built from the ground up, but it made sense now.

All the newscasts that correlated with when he was gone, how early in the morning some of the stories had occurred. She almost had to laugh out loud when the thought of Bruce being Batman crossed her mind.

When she looked back up him with humorous eyes the way he was looking at her confirmed it. She had never seen Batman in person, but the few photos taken of him made it obvious.

_Bruce_ was Batman.

She suddenly had a whole mix of emotions; excitement, embarrassment, understanding, and there was no denying the bit of lust picturing Bruce as the masked crusader…that feeling was relatively deep though.

"I'm an idiot," was the first thing she said taking a bit of her sandwich.

"No, you're not, I'd be the idiot if you were too quick to figure it out."

"No, but I really am. The suit, I saw that suit when I first started working here. I can't believe I didn't even realize what it was."

"Well to be fair, it got a little bit of a makeover."

She smiled at him, a slight blush coming to her cheeks.

He reached over at grabbed her hand that was resting on the table, "I really do care for you Allison. Not telling you was really for your safety. Only three people, well now four know, so please don't think this was just some conspiracy against you. I hope you understand why you can't…"

"Tell anyone? I know Bruce trust me I can keep a secret," as the words left her mouth she instantly thought of Jack.

Jack…Jack was the Joker, Bruce was Batman.

She had to stop thinking about it right now, or she was going to be overwhelmed. She took and deep breath and squeezed Bruce's hand.

"I'm happy to hear that and I do trust you."

The two finished lunch quickly and held hands as they walked through the back of the building and then pulled apart as they reached the outside.

***

It was the early evening and Allison was busy in the kitchen cooking dinner as Addison played with her dolls in the living room. Janet had just left the apartment. The two played with the little girl, and talked caught up, as they hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks.

The conversation got slightly awkward and Janet got the hint to leave once the conversation got to Nathan. It was the fact that she wanted to talk about him; it was the fact she insinuated Allison might know his whereabouts that pushed Allison to the edge.

Right after that, Allison made it known that dinner was soon and she had to give Allison a bath and get her to bed, so Janet showed herself out.

The TV was off, as it had been so many times before. Allison would watch the 11 o' clock news, once Addie was tucked into her bed. Not only was she interested in what Jack was doing, she was also interested in what Bruce, Jack's nemesis if you will, was doing.

She watched the chicken cook in the skillet, trying to take her mind off of it all. She looked over at Addison and couldn't help but smile. She was extremely beautiful and smart. Jack had always been extremely smart. She wondered how she would turn out.

Would the Joker influence her?

Would Allison stay in Gotham long enough to find out?

What roll could Bruce, Gotham's hero, play in her life?

Should Allison tell her at some point who Bruce is?

She certainly hoped he'd be in their life long enough for Allison to be old enough to understand.

Now it came to the point where she wondered if she'd see Jack again. How did she feel about that? She didn't know, she was more confused now knowing the truth about Bruce.

"Addison, dinner."

The little girl bounced up from the floor and skipped to the table, climbing onto her seat as her mother placed the plate in front of her.

"Mommy, there are green beans on here."

"I know Addie, I put butter and salt on them, just at least try them."

She pouted slightly, pushing them with her small fork eating her rice first.

Too much happened today for Allison to argue with her, but she would try those damned green beans before she left her seat.

As mother and daughter ate, Addison talked about the picture she drew in class, the girl who took a doll from her and got into timeout for it, and a boy who wouldn't stop pulling on her hair.

After dinner while Allison was washing the dishes and Addie was playing in the bathtub with her toys, the phone rang.

Allison went to her phone as quick as possible thinking it was Bruce, but when she looked at the number her blood ran cold as she recognized the number Nathan wrote down for her.

"Nathan…" she said slowly and quietly not wanting Addie to hear her.

"Guess again, Ace," the chilling voice from the other side responded.

_Dun, Dun, Dun. Okay so not the most surprising of endings…or maybe it was? There were a lot of unanswered questions in this chapter and I encourage you to answer any of them in your own opinion, not that this shouldn't happen all the time, but I promise to respond to __**all reviews**__ left for this chapter. Please let me know what you think. _


	10. Dangerous Assumptions

_Snow day today made me want to write. I know this chapter will be the beginning of what most of you have probably been waiting for. _

_Thank you to _**TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, Affectionate-Sinner, ujemaima, Laurel, definevintagexx, **_and_**Gen3683icy6**_._

* * *

_Happy Reading!_

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Allison's body suddenly felt numb. She managed to walk to the furthest corner of the kitchen where Addison couldn't see her.

"What do _you_ want?" she whispered harshly to the nasally voice on the other end.

He let out a cackle that made her separate her ear from the phone and glare at it, as if he could see her.

"Well," he started finally gathering control of himself, "I…well you have a little bit of a problem and little ole me, was uh going to help you."

"I don't have a problem."

"I uh, beg to differ, Ace, see I had a meeting with the mob _to-day_, and this one big fellow, Gamble, well see we didn't really hit it off. He uh wants me dead, which is fine, see I'll kill him tomorrow (Allison winced at the word kill), but my associates and I (he laughed) have reason to believe he knows about _you_."

Allison swallowed hard; how did this happen?

"No need to uh fear, _but_ I think it might be best if you come and visit your brother for a couple of days." He spoke the last part very slowly as if to tell her it wasn't an option.

"You want me to come to where _you _are? Yeah right, Jack, if you think I'm going to stay-"

"It's that or you and the kid's life, _doll_."

She looked over at the toddler splashing around in the bathtub and her heart sunk.

"Does he know about Addison?"

"Nope-uh." His answer was quick and clear.

"Fine. I'll come, but I'm dropping Addison off at the Conwell's."

"Okey Dokey," he giggled, "I'll have someone pick you up there in twenty minutes."

Before she could respond he hung up.

Twenty minutes wasn't a lot of time, so she quickly dialed Janet's number.

* * *

The little girl clutched onto Allison as they walked up to the townhouse. Janet was more then willing to take the young girl and even more excited when Allison told her she was going out with "friends". Dornan and Janet always wanted her to socialize outside of Nathan and Jack, but friends never came easy to her.

Clearly it still didn't.

Janet had the door open before Allison was even halfway to the door.

"Hello Addison!" She greeted the youngster who continued to cling to her mother.

"Thanks for taking her on such short notice. Whitney doesn't have a three-year-old to worry about, she can just go clubbing at any time."

"Oh don't worry about it, darling, you need to get out every once and awhile. How about I take Addison for the weekend so you can have more time to go out."

Taking a breath Allison hesitated. Jack said he planned on taking care of this Gamble problem tomorrow, but what if something happened. Maybe having Addison gone a couple extra days would be smart.

The blonde handed the little girl off to the older woman and smiled, "That actually sounds like a good idea, I'll let you know for sure tomorrow."

Janet's face lit up, obviously not expecting that answer, but she looked absolutely delighted.

Allison kissed the top of the little girl's head, "I love you baby please be good for grandma."

The tired toddler buried her head into her grandmother's neck closing her eyes, mumbling a "bye mommy."

"Did you want to come in for a couple minutes, dear?" Janet asked watching the young mother look at her daughter with sad eyes.

Allison quickly looked up and smiled, "No, I have to get going."

"Alright, be safe and have fun," she said giving her one last smile before walking into the house and closing the door.

For a moment Allison had convinced herself that she was going clubbing with friends, but when she remembered her life was actually in danger she hugged her coat closer to her body and began the short walk to the corner of the street, out of sight from the townhouse waiting for her ride.

Nearly a minute later a old pickup truck pulled next to her and when Allison looked into the truck, she became fearful after not recognizing the driver.

He reached over and opened the passenger door, "Get in," he said simply not even aware that the young woman before him was apprehensive.

"Did _he _send you?" she asked taking a couple steps towards the truck.

"Yeah, come one Allison, he'll be pissed if we're late."

She scoffed, that did sound like him, she stepped into the truck and once she closed the door the man sped off.

They didn't say much to each other, but Allison did take a minute to look him over. He was surprisingly attractive and looked well kept. She had expected her brother to pick her up but if it were someone else she didn't think they would look so _nice_.

He almost looked like Tyson Beckford. He was strong and intimidating but at the same time, his facial features were relatively soft, almost like a big teddy bear.

She decided that instead of sitting her, she might as well talk to the man who currently held her life in his hands.

"How long have you been, working for him?"

It took him a moment but he first responded with a light chuckle and looked over at her, "You don't even know my name and that's the first question you ask me?"

She looked back at him before he turned his attention back to the road, "Would you even tell me your real name?"

"Touché," he replied before falling silent again.

Allison had basically even up but after a couple of minutes he answered.

"3 weeks," he said look back at her then to the road.

"Is there any particular reason you would want to work for him?"

He let out a wholehearted laugh, "I pretty much hate the world as much as he does."

That was a rather disturbing answer.

"What did he tell you about me?"

"Not a whole lot, basically you were in trouble, I needed to bring you to him or get a bullet between the eyes."

"And you're not curious about me?"

He shrugged, "I guess I'd be lying if I said I wasn't, but it's not my business and I know better then to ask questions."

"Right," she replied leaning her head against the window falling silent once again.

"You're just going to leave me there, huh? I wasn't going to ask you any questions, but now that you bring it all up."

She couldn't help but grin and let out a soft laugh, so he wasn't completely heartless like he put on. The teddy bear theory wasn't completely dead.

"I uh, knew him before the Joker was born."

That seemed to completely catch his attention; the shock in his face was imminent but like a true thug, he held back.

"Wow, I mean I knew Nathan was close to him, but I didn't think anyone knew him before."

"Yeah, since I was a preteen, Nathan is my brother."

"No shit." He shook his head, "that was probably the last thing I expected."

"What? You thought maybe I was a hooker who had dirt on him or something, or maybe you just thought I was a good fuck."

"Whoa easy. I might have thought something like that but not right after I saw you. You're hot, but you don't carry yourself like a hooker, trust me I know some hookers."

"Fascinating."

"Well we're here."

She looked out the window at a very familiar abandoned warehouse.

"Lasher Avenue hasn't changed much."

He looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, "ya used to hang out on Lasher?"

Sighing she opened the truck door, "more then you might think."

He led her into the building, which when first opened appeared completely abandoned until you got through the first doorway towards the back.

Once they entered a group of about eight men were sitting around in a makeshift living room, kitchen, and dinning room. A set of stairs was all the way in the corner, which looked to lead up to an old office with windows overlooking the entire place.

The room was big enough to hold cots, which were pushed near each other in the far corner of one side of the room.

It wasn't clean, but it also wasn't incredibly disgusting. For men she supposed it was livable.

Some of the men stopped what they were doing to look at the pair.

Some stared a little too long while others smiled at her escort.

"Hey Arms! We just started a new round of Hold 'Em you want in?"

"Sure Chuckles, just let me escort our guest upstairs."

The man, Chuckles, didn't respond, just looked at Allison and winked before looking back at the other men.

"Come on," her escort, now known as Arms said gently taking her arm and leading her upstairs.

Right at the top of the stairs there was a closed heavy metal door.

"Boss, I'm back with the girl."

"Come on in, Ace," his voice echoed from the other side.

Arms gave her one last grin before walking back down the stairs.

Allison slowly opened the door and stepped in.

The room was dimly lit and although it wasn't masterfully decorated it was clean. There was a door on the other side that she assumed to be a bathroom. The bed was probably a full size and when her gaze made it to her right she saw him, sitting at a desk in the corner.

He was in full costume, aside from his coat that was hanging up. It was the same purple suit she had seen him in on the TV. His makeup was slightly faded but stilled applied.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. Sure there was a level of fear, but she knew by now he would never hurt her. Why even bother bringing her here if he didn't care?

"So you moved on from the mob, I see."

Her arms crossed lazily over her chest and she casually popped a hip to the side.

His tongue flipped his bottom lip before a long and eerie grin stretched across his red painted face.

"There are bigger fish to fry, sweetheart. A Batman is much more fun then overrated mobsters. Plus they uh paid for my suit, do you like it?"

He stood up from his seat and brushed off any lint that might exist.

"It's um…purple."

"Plum actually, but do you _like _it ah?"

"Sure," she was tired of this small talk, "I see you like to kill innocent people and tape it now."

He burst out in laughter; she had expected him to react that way. Killing people was hilarious after all.

"He was dressing up like the Batman, he was going to die sooner or later, _I_ was just sending a message."

His tone was extremely mocking when he said Batman; Allison immediately thought of Bruce and was still unclear how much of a danger Jack would be for him.

He noticed the look of concern on her face, but he let dangerous assumptions dictate his response.

"Does it make you sad Allison?" Him using her full name immediately pulled her from her thoughts to his eyes.

He took a slow step forward, "To know that I'm not that bad boy fantasy you used to mix up in that head of yours. I'm much worse then the 'bad boy' I make him run away, scream for his life. I don't feel remorse for slicing smiles into faces of people I've never met. I'm not that handsome older guy you're going to live happily ever after with," he licked his lip again as he continued to step closer, his head now cocked to the side, "I have these nice scars now and I'm going to make sure the world know about them." His voice became dangerously low, as he was merely a foot from her, "I'm not attractive to you anymore, does that make you depressed?"

He giggled as if mocking her "depression" that she didn't know she was feeling.

She stood there merely blinking at him. He might have thought he just taped into some secret she was trying to hide, but really he had just opened up to her without knowing.

While she began to contemplate everything he was saying he took off into the bathroom. She heard the sink turn on but all she was doing was pondering.

She seemed to just glide over to the bed and sat on the edge of it.

Did she not find him attractive?

His appearance was different and frightened her…no frightened wasn't the right word, it had stunned her to know that he had a knife tearing through the sensitive flesh of his face.

Sure, she couldn't deny that as a teen he was her "bad boy". Maybe in a lot of ways he still was.

She had spend so much effort in the last month shielding Addison from him and trying to figure out her relationship with Bruce that she didn't allow herself to think about any romantic feelings with Jack.

Clearly he had been thinking about her.

His little declaration was more like a confession whether he wanted to admit to that or not.

He wasn't as different as he thought he was. Maybe he thought he was above society's superficial tendencies, like appearance but he wasn't. At least not when it came to being around her. There was no denying that.

When he walked out of the bathroom and Allison looked at him impulse took over.

His face was completely clean of all makeup.

His scars seemed to disappear to her and she was looking at Jack, the first man she ever loved and the father of her child.

Maybe this was just an illusion, but she suddenly felt seventeen again and she was looking at her 22-year-old crush. Not the Joker. She didn't have room in her heart for both, not right now, but she had to let Jack know what he meant to her and even with the scars he was the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on.

She wanted to kiss him.

Before she could convince herself not to, she stood up from the bed as her feet carried her closer to him.

He had only taken a couple steps from the bathroom as she approached him. An initial look of curiosity graced his face, but as she got closer curiosity became realization, but he too seemed to be frozen in an alternate universe and as she became nearly inches from him. She brought her lips to his.

And he let her.

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_Well are you happy? Review? Please?_

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_**As promised**__:_

**TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad- **_it is cruel to leave cliffhangers but I think it makes things more exciting and at least I didn't take too long to update. Hopefully you agree!_

**Affectionate-Sinner- **_Well now you know did it surprise you? Probably not it wasn't some master idea or anything._

**Ujemaima- **_I can pretty much guarantee some Joker/Batman showdowns inspired by a certain blonde main character._

**Laurel- **_Thank you, I hope for a similar response this time around._

**Deinevintagexx- **_I like that kind of storyline too. I think it brings a whole new element to it and although a lot of people seem to have done it, I'm trying to put a slightly different spin on mine. I hope you continue to enjoy. _

**Gen3683icy6- **_Well despite the cliffhanger I hope you didn't feel you had to wait too long. _

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	11. Ultimate Bad Boy

I know it's been forever, the only excuse I have is life. Thank you **reviewers**(!), I'm sorry I didn't respond. To tell you the truth, I've been uninspired to write this story. It's a combination of things, loss of interest, writer's block, lack of reviews. I'm not even sure if anyone has missed it. I'll be making a decision within a chapter or two whether or not I'm going to finish this story or not, but for now:

**Happy reading!**

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When her lips first hit his, he stood frozen, not touching her, but not pushing her away either.

He flinched when she moved her lips to gently touch each scar on either side of his face.

After that moment something in him clicked and he aggressively grabbed her hips and pulled her body against his capturing her lips.

This kiss was demanding, almost a fight for dominance. Normally he would win, mainly because she had been so smitten with him and didn't really know how to kiss that he was the leader.

* * *

**9 Years Ago**

* * *

She barely recognized the person looking back at her. It was the fall of her freshmen year of high school and she was getting ready to go to her first football game. She could hardly believe her luck. Victor Brawn, a junior and the varsity team starting quarterback had invited Allison to the game.

Afterwards he had invited her to go to an after party at one of his teammate's houses. Janet was thrilled. Victor Brawn, like most boys from the preparatory school, came from a very prestigious family and extremely good-looking.

Janet had hired someone to come into the house to do Allison's hair and makeup and had just left. At the time Allison was a young teen who was just trying to find herself. After all none of the other girls at her school had been at an orphanage in the Narrows. Starting at an all girls private school put a lot of pressure on her to be…perfect.

Her hair was only shoulder length but had been styled to the latest pin straight trend. She had on a pair of tight fit low rise flare jeans with a black razor back tank top, she looked at the jacket resting on the chair in front of her desk. It was Victor's varsity jacket, the icing on the cake. At least for tonight she was marked his territory.

She put on some pink lip-gloss Janet had given her take and put it across her lips. It wasn't the first time she had worn makeup, but it was usually very light, a nude color eye shadow, mascara, and maybe chap stick. Tonight, foundation, eyeliner, and darker eye shadow had been added to the mix.

She walked over and picked up the jacket. As she put it over her shoulders she caught eye of someone in her doorway.

"Jack! Hey, I didn't know you were here."

She cursed herself at how excited she sounded, play it cool Allison, play it cool.

"Uh, yeah, surprise!" he replied mocking her excited voice.

She looked down at her toes, feeling embarrassed and nervous. Jack was rough around the edges but still absolutely gorgeous. He had on jeans, which had some small rips from being so old, an equally old faded black shirt and worn out sneakers. When Nathan and Jack first started hanging out, Janet offered to take Jack shopping, but he murmured something rude and declined.

Ever since Nathan barely graduated high school he hadn't been at the house often meaning Jack hadn't been there often. She always begged Nathan to let her come with him wherever he was going, but he would refuse and tell her she was better off where she was.

Sure she missed her brother, but it was the young man at the door that she was eager to be with.

She was trying to figure out what to say next, but Jack beat her too it.

"What's with the jacket?" he asked walking into her room and plopping down on her bed as if it was his.

"I-I'm going to the football game tonight," she tried to make it sound like it was stupid because she knew that's how he'd feel.

"You sound like you don't want to _go._"

She shrugged and casually sat down on the edge of her bed next to where he was laying.

"I don't, not really, I mean maybe it will be ok, but I don't really know a lot about football."

He suddenly sat up startling her a bit like he often did and grabbed her chin so she was looking at him.

"Are you a liar Allison?" He didn't sound angry, more like amused as if he was about to do an experiment.

Her answer came quickly. "No!"

"Really? Hm, well then would you like me to kill," his eyes gazed down at her left breast, "Victor, for you? Is he uh taking you against your will?"

He sounded so serious that her eyes went wide, "What! Jack! No, of course not, he's on the team he asked me to come and-" it was becoming clear to her. She had lied to him, she did want to go to the game.

He let go of her chin and glared at her, "don't lie to me ever again Allison, I hate liars."

"I'm sorry, I mean I don't really want to go to the game, but I guess I am kind of excited to maybe make friends."

He was silent for a few moment, but then offered her a genuine grin, something that didn't happen too often.

"You should be excited kid, it's your freshmen year, maybe if you get the 'ins' this early in the game, it won't be so hard for you."

Jack hated high school with every fiber of his body. He had rarely went and just stayed quiet for the most part, seeing Allison become aligned with the group of kids who made his life hell bothered him more then he would like to admit.

Her outer appearance hadn't gone unnoticed to him. She looked beautiful, but frankly he liked her without all the makeup. She looked rich tonight, not like the young girl from the Narrows he had first met.

Allison cringed at his words, "I'm not going to change, Jack, I don't care about being popular, I just don't want to be alone."

He couldn't help but laugh at her little outburst, he enjoyed when she tried sticking up for herself. "There is a middle ground, Ace. It's not wearing mister varsity's jacket or sit alone in the rain, there are people out there you might actually have something in common with."

She almost there was a hint of jealousy in his voice, but that had to be impossible. He was probably just being possessive; Jack was like that even though he didn't have a lot to be possessive over.

"Victor seems nice, I'm sure we'll have something in common."

He wanted to laugh at her, tell her she was being ridiculous that this guy was just going to use her and then probably break her heart, but he didn't.

"I'm sure you will, Ace, but if he does anything you don't like, let him know you have two guys back home who won't hesitate to slice that pretty boy smile right off his face."

Playfully she rolled her eyes and smiled, "I'll make sure that's the first thing he knows."

"Right, well," he stood from the bed, "have a good time, enjoy being a kid for once, you don't get to do that a lot, taking care of me and your brother all the time."

Giving her one small grin he started walking for her door when she jumped up. She didn't know what she was doing but she figured it was now or never.

"Jack," she started and swallowed hard as he turned towards her, "what if he kisses me?"

He was clearly taken aback by her question, he hadn't even considered that this stupid jock would want to kiss her. Now he wasn't sure how he felt about it. It was until this year when he actually saw her as a girl and not just a scrawny boy with long hair.

He kept a small grin on his face but his eyes lacked the confidence, "what about it?"

"I don't know, I've never kissed anyone before, I mean I know a lot of girls say stuff like this, but what if I'm bad at it? I feel more unprepared then most girls."

He furrowed his eyebrows he wasn't prepared to deal with this, "What exactly do you want _me_ to do?"

She looked down to her toes and rocked back on her heels, "I think you know."

It was amazing that he even heard her, she had practically whispered.

"No," he said quickly and simply her eyes shot up to meet his.

"Why? I'm not asking you to make out with me, I just want you to tell me if I'm bad or not."

"Everybody's bad for their first kiss, it's just a right of uh passage or something."

He could immediately see the distressed look in her face. Se was regretting ever asking him, he was almost sure she would start crying if he walked out of the room right now.

There was no way he could kiss her, it's not like he was good at it. He had only kissed three other girls before, none that he actually liked two of them when he was drunk. It hardly made him an expert, but he knew his experience had little to do with this situation.

As soon as she was in middle school she would get all hot and bothered when she was around him. She was a teen though and by law he was an adult, it was comical thinking of himself as an adult. This was illegal and yet when he looked at her completely embarrassed and mortified face he couldn't help but stepping closer to her.

He gripped her chin and forced her to look up at him, all thinking went out the window as it would continue to do from that moment on and Jack gently pushed his lips to hers.

It was just as awkward as all first kisses, neither pair of lips knew exactly how to move, but neither one of them wanted to pull away. She let him lead, keeping her lips still, yet flexible until she finally understood the rhythm. She didn't really care if Victor was going to kiss her or not even if that was how she convinced herself to ask Jack in the first place.

She stared to get bolder and removed his hand from her chin and tangled her fingers in his curly hair. His hands rested on her hips as their lips moved rhythmically, but just as soon as the kiss had started it had ended. Jack pulled away from her and walked out of the room without looking back, leaving her standing in her room with swollen lips.

Victor Brawn didn't kiss her that night.

* * *

**Back to 2008**

* * *

Allison continued to fight for dominance with the Joker as their kisses grew almost violent. He was completely caught off guard when she bit his bottom lip and then slowly pulled away dragging his lip with her until she let her teeth grazed him pulling away completely.

"If you really thought the only reason I loved you, Jack, was because of your looks, you are much more naïve then you let on." She ran her finger down his chest and flicked the strap on his suspenders, "I don't know what this whole Joker getup is really about," her eyes lifted to meet his as she daringly brought her hand up to one of his scars, "but these don't make me look at you any differently."

It would be difficult to judge who was more surprised at what happened next. The Joker, in the most loving way, cupped her cheek with his hand and leaned in to kiss her forehead.

She dropped her hand and melted into him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He rested his forehead against hers, "I hope you uh know that _this_ can only happen when we're _alone_."

She pulled her head away and looked up at him, "I know."

Neither one of them really knew what they were getting themselves into, but neither one of them had been known for thinking things all the way through.

The next morning Allison woke slightly startled forgetting where she was. It was when she heard light snoring next to her that she remembered and could help but smile. The rest of the night had been uncharacteristic for both Jack and the Joker. They hadn't had sex, not even close, instead they laid in bed together, her head on his chest and his hands resting behind his head. She told him about when she found out she was pregnant, moving to Florida, modeling, Addison's birth, her first steps, her first word. He didn't really say much in return, but she didn't push him to say anything. The fact that he was letting her talk to him about her and Addison was more then what she expected from him.

When she started to get drowsy and close her eyes she was put to sleep faster when she felt him hesitantly run his fingers through her hair.

Now she was lying on her side, her back facing him as he laid next to her. Her stomach grumbled rather painfully, she hadn't had much to eat yesterday.

She crept out of bed, surprised that the loud creaks hadn't woken him up. Boldly, she went to the door and slowly opened it to listen to the activity downstairs and she was just in time.

"Whataya ya think they're doin' up there?" The first voice said.

"Probably sleeping, dumbass," replied another.

"In the same bed?"

"How the fuck should I know? Why don't you just go up there and look?"

"Yeah, Bozo," a third voice piped in, "why don't you do that?"

"Sure guys and when I just hope ya don't mind my brains as the new paint for the walls"

The three downstairs chuckled and Allison could here them chewing on some sort of food reminding her of how hungry she was.

As she was just about to go back to the room and put some shoes on she heard one of them say;

"You think he banged her?"

Another who was nick named, Bozo started to laugh, "Yeah right, did ya see how hot she was? She'd have ta be a hooker, do ya think she's a hooker, Red?"

"Not a chance, she looked too clean and was much too fine to fuck someone like him, I don't think any hot hooker would, not even for a million bucks."

Allison could feel her blood boiling. Sure, she knew they were all idiots, but how dare they speak that way about Jack. They obviously hadn't known him before the scars, all the girls who desperately wanted him and she scoffed at the fact of her being a hooker.

"She's not a fucking hooker and if the three of you were smart, you'd shut your fucking mouths before a knife gets shoved in them."

She knew that voice.

"Whoa, Arms, chill, we were just wondering what they were doing up there, you have to admit she's way to pretty to be fucking him voluntarily."

That was it, now that she knew Arms was down there, she knew she had to do something. She slowly tip toed back into the room when her eyes fell onto a certain purple trench coat draped across the back of a chair. She glanced back at Jack to make sure he was still sound asleep, the slight snoring coming from him confirmed that he was. She pulled off her shirt, took off her pants, slipped on her white satin pumps, and finally slipped on the trench coat. She adjusted her breasts to make them perky in the violet lace bra she wore, with match lace boy shorts. She pulled her hair out of the ponytail she put it in last night and shook it around letting the waves fall down her back. She knew it was probably messy, but that's kind of what she was going for.

She opened the door as slowly as she could and stepped out quickly before quietly closing it.

As soon as she stepped down to the first step all talking ceased.

Once the men became visible she couldn't help but smile. Mouths were open, eyes were wide, it was as about as cliché as it could've been.

"Morning guys, I didn't know anyone was down here. Do you guys live here or something?"

Nodding from Bozo was the closest thing she got for a response as she walked into the makeshift kitchen.

"What's for breakfast?" she asked nonchalantly as if she wasn't half naked.

"D-d-doughnuts," the one she assumed was Red, because of his red hair replied.

She walked over to the table where the doughnuts and men were sitting at, she inspected the pile and then her eyes lit up, "is that a Boston crème? Those are my favorite." She took the doughnut without waiting for a reply and practically crammed it into her mouth.

"Did you sleep well, Arms?" she asked with a partially full mouth. All the men were still staring at her, eyes less wide, but mouths still opened.

"Yeah?" he replied almost as a question.

"Do you not know?" she laughed.

He chuckled in response, "no I do know, I did sleep well, should I ask the same?"

She licked her fingers after stuffing the last piece of the doughnut in her face, "I slept like a baby."

She wasn't surprised when she saw the men exchange shocked glances. Bozo cleared his throat trying to gain some confidence.

"Did ya, at some point, do any modeling?"

Of course he would be the one to see the magazine.

"At some point, yes I did do some."

The third one, whose name she didn't know also spoke up, "did the boss threaten you to sleep with him or something?"

Arms hit him across the head before Allison could respond.

"Fuck, Arms! He must've done something to make someone like her even sleep within ten feet of him."

"Actually, he didn't have to do anything," the men all looked towards her, "you see, sure us girls like the tall, dark, and handsome. I mean, it doesn't suck if he has money either, but," she leaned over the table giving them a nice look at her pushed up breasts, "you know what girls really can't resist?"

She had to try hard not the laugh when she saw Red gulp. She made her way over to Arms, and ran her hand up and down his arm suggestively, "We really can't resist a bad boy and boys the Joker he is the ultimate bad boy," she purred before turning away from them and heading back up the metal stairs.

Not surprisingly, not one of them said a single word. She, however; found herself speechless when she entered the room to find Jack standing in the middle of the room looking at her and he did not look happy.


	12. Choices

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, sorry I'm not making a list this time. The only thing I ask is you leave a review just to let me know you still want to read this story. If I get no reviews, I'll probably stop writing, or maybe do some abrupt and inappropriate ending. It's not in spite of anyone, I just know I take so long to update, I would be annoyed if I was a reader. I might be more motivated because things really start getting into the romance after this chapter, which is what I actually like writing. **

**Recap: We left Allison in the Joker's bedroom after she pulled the stunt of her half naked in front of the goons. He's not a happy camper.**

**Happy Reading!  
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His eyes burned right through the blonde standing before him. What the hell had she been thinking?

It didn't matter because now _he_ was no longer thinking…_rationally_ anyway. All he could see now was red and then just like that he had her on the bed, a knife pressed to her throat. He wasn't even sure how or when it all happened, but the soft sob she let out finally brought him out of whatever alternate universe he was in. All he could remember was seeing those goons of his with their hands all over her nearly nude flesh; as if she didn't deserve it, flaunting herself in front of them, and in _his_ coat nonetheless.

She was purposely trying to tease them, that much was obvious, but how he ended up in this position, he wasn't sure. Yes, he had felt rage before, but he had always been in control of it, that was a part of the _fun_. Not remembering his brutal murders would defeat the purpose of them in the first place.

No, he didn't want to murder Allison, but he had considered it. It might take care of the potential distraction that the blonde would have on him. However, like it or not, he knew he would never be able to do anything to her. As she quivered under him, he was quickly reminded of the fear he caused and slowly got off of her.

She watched him finally turn his back to her and she sat up. He had looked like a man possessed. His eyes seemed to change from their dark brown to black. Never had she ever seen anything like it. Sure, she thought maybe he might be a little pissed even jealous, but enraged? She didn't even realize she was crying until the salty taste reached her mouth. Quickly she wiped them away and scurried to the headboard of the bed. It wasn't the first time she had seen Jack angry, but it was the first time it had been directed at her.

He inhaled deeply and ran his hands through his hair before turning back to her. Not wanting to feel inferior she stood up from the bed and used his coat as a robe, wrapping it around her body tightly.

"I uh, should be done taking care of Gamble around 2:00, so, uh, you can leave by then."

His eyes never met hers as he spoke. He was still angry, but now at himself. She knew him long enough to tell the difference, but it didn't mean she wasn't pissed. He would never make her the victim, she wasn't fifteen anymore. Her skeptical face skewed to anger and she shed his coat from her body and threw it onto the ground in front of him.

"Good, I won't be here," she spat placing her hands on her hips. Her lack of clothes didn't faze her, she had no interest in seducing him right now, nor was he paying attention to her body.

His eyes stayed plastered onto hers as he picked up his jacket and walked to his desk and grabbed a semi automatic lying there. He tossed it onto the bed in front of her.

"You remember how to _use_ it-ah?"

"Yes."

"Good, make sure to keep the uh _safety's_ on, we wouldn't want any, hm, _accidents_."

She glared at him as he put his coat on, he didn't say anything else to her, just walked to the door.

Once he left, she let out the breath she had been holding in. She grabbed the gun sitting on the bed and check to make sure it was loaded. She stuffed it into her oversized purse after pulling out her clothes for the day. While exchanging items her phone fell out. Picking it up she noticed a missed call, Bruce.

Seeing as he didn't leave a message she just decided to call him back, it didn't even take two rings before he answered bringing a smile to her face.

"Hey, I was wondering where you were."

"That's a little stalker-_ish_ don't you think, Mr. Wayne?"

"Does that bother you?"

She laughed as she pulled up her jeans, "the jury's still out."

"Well I had called you yesterday to see if you wanted to take a trip with me, to Tokyo, but since you didn't get back, I just took the entire Russian ballet."

"Did you, now? Is that an attempt to get me jealous?"

"No, but if it did, it's a plus, I'm actually here on…business."

His pause was a dead give away on what business he was attending to.

"So the ballet orgy was-"

"-just a cover-up and there was no orgy," he finished for her.

"Good to know."

"When I get back I'm going to be throwing that party for Harvey and I think you should be my date."

Any movement that Allison had been partaking in ceased at his words. Her first instinct was to accept, but then she realized what this meant. If she agreed to be Bruce's date one of two things would happen: People would take them seriously and they would be officially a couple or she would just be another secretary swooning over the boss.

Was she ready for either?

While lost in her head Bruce was still rambling about that night, he had obviously assumed she would just say yes so when the "No" came out of her mouth he still continuing with his thoughts until it hit him.

"No?"

"Bruce, don't get me wrong, I would love to go with you, but I don't think it's a good idea."

"Are you going to elaborate on that Al?"

She sighed and moved the phone away from her ear as she slipped her shirt over her head, thinking of exactly what to say.

"Well, I don't want to be a stereotype. The secretary the boss hits on-"

"It's a good thing I'm not technically your boss, I'm pretty sure Lucius signs your checks."

She paused while he chuckled from the other end of the phone.

"Are you done being a smart ass?"

He gave her one more laugh before stopping, "I'm sorry, but since when do you care what people think of you?"

"Well I start to care when my escort to a dinner is a billionaire, therefore has tons of media watching their every move including who they date. I don't care if a whole bunch of my adoptive parents rich friends think I'm some kind of slut or rebel, I'd rather not all of Gotham think I'm some blonde bimbo secretary dating Bruce Wayne."

"Would it really be so bad?" he sighed, "dating me, I mean."

What? This was unexpected. She knew they had a connection physically and emotionally, but they were also so messed up. He was in love with a woman Allison knew would never be with him, and she couldn't let go of an old flame that was now an out of control wild fire trying burn down Gotham. Maybe that's why they could be perfect for each other.

"Are you asking me to date you or be your date to a dinner?"

"Maybe a little bit of both. God, I don't know, Allison, I feel like we're more than just friends, but there's-"

"Rachel?"

"I was going to say Addison, but I understand why you might think Rachel."

"Are you saying you want to date my daughter, Bruce?" She was smirking and knew he could probably feel it.

"Are you done being a smart ass?" he asked, mimicking her voice from earlier.

"Face it Bruce we're both too fucked up to date, but we certainly can keep what we have right now."

"I wasn't planning on giving you a choice. I guess I'm going to have to find another date."

"Well if you really want people to think you're a douche bring two. Actually you might want to go with three"

He started laughing, "should I maybe fly in on a helicopter too?"

She flopped back down on the Joker's bed, "it wouldn't hurt."

* * *

As promised, Gamble was "taken care of" by 2:00. Allison had already went and picked up Addison from Janet and Dornan only to find that Janet had pretty much bought Addie a whole new wardrobe. Luckily the toddler was pleased with the outfits.

All the way home Addison started talking about her birthday party. She would be four-years-old in about a month and was eager to have the "best party ever".

"Gramma said I'd have ponies and candy and get lots of presents!"

Allison couldn't contain an eye roll, "Did she? Well I have to talk to Grandma about this, so don't get too excited."

The disappointment was evident on the toddler's face and Allison knew she would probably have to give in to this one, but it didn't mean she wouldn't be having a talk with Janet.

"Will Uncle Nathan come to my party?"

Allison swallowed hard, "have you said anything to Grandma or anyone else about Uncle Nathan?"

"No, remember mommy, you said not to."

"I know I said that baby, I was just making sure you remembered."

The toddler sighed, "Yes mommy I remembered."

Both fell into silence until they arrived back at the apartment, then the dreaded "D" word came into the picture.

"When will I see daddy again? I miss him."

One day. That's all she had spent with him, but with a child her age, that's all it was going to take.

Allison knew she would start having to answer Addison's questions about her father, but she never thought the two would meet and if they did she didn't think he would be a villain…or whatever he was.

She snorted at the thought.

"I don't know, he's very busy."

Addison frowned and went into her room. Allison leaned against the counter and took a deep breath; she was literally going insane. She knew the smartest thing for her and Addison would be to get out of dodge as soon as possible. She had a crush on a billionaire who liked to play super hero and her baby's daddy was an insane clown.

Not to mention her brother was a fugitive.

Yet, she had come to the conclusion she was addicted to chaos because that's all that could come from this and she knew she wasn't leaving anytime soon.

She was grateful for the knock at the door to tear her away from her thoughts. After looking through the peephole she smiled and swung it open.

"What did you do take Concord?"

Bruce smiled, "Would you expect it any other way?"

She shut the door behind him as he walked in, "I guess n-"

When she turned around to look at him, he was less than two inches from her.

"Hi," he said, his warm breath hitting her lips.

"Hi," she breathlessly replied back.

His lips gently pecked hers and he pulled back briefly. She chased his fleeting lips, this time for a much longer and deeper one. He eagerly matched her intensity pushing her into the door and clenching her hips with his hands. Hers were knotted behind his neck as she eagerly pushed her body against his as if they could fuse together.

When he abruptly pulled away Allison was confused and disappointed until she opened her eyes and saw him looking down.

There staring up at him was the three-year-old pulling on his pant leg. Allison released her grip from around his neck and he reluctantly dropped his hands from her hips.

"Hey kiddo."

"Up," was her only reply.

He smiled and lifted her into his arms, "you're demanding, just like your mother."

"I missed you," she said snuggling into the crook of his neck. Allison smiled, but at the same time became worried. Her and Bruce weren't an official item and if something happened between them, it would be hard to watch the little girl mourn the loss of him.

"I missed you too, monkey. Did you take care of your mom while I was gone?"

"No, I stayed with grandma, mommy had a girl's night."

Bruce glanced up at Allison who managed to give an unconvincing innocent grin.

"Hm," he said slowly setting her down, "well did you at least have fun with your grandma?"

"Yes! We started planning my birthday! Will you come?"

He squatted down to her level, "wouldn't miss it! Now go ahead and play with your toys so I can spend time with your mom and then I promise I'll take you out to dinner, do we have a deal?"

Her eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly before trotting back into her bedroom and shutting the door.

Allison quickly started to make her way her bedroom trying to avoid being questioned.

If only she was so lucky.

Bruce was hot on her tail and her heart skipped a beat when she heard him close the door behind her.

"Girl's night out?" his voice leaked of suspicion.

She turned to face him and sat down on her bed, "Yes a night out with girls."

"You didn't mention that before," he retorted, not amused by her smart-ass remark.

"You never asked," she said more seriously, "plus I don't need to tell you what I do."

He gave a slight snort, "no you don't, I just wasn't aware you knew any girls."

She didn't have much time to think of her response. She knew he could easily find out if Whitney was one of those girls and she couldn't trust Whitney to go along with it.

"Well I did grow up here, I know people."

"You've never hung out with them before, or mentioned them for that matter."

Now she was getting irritated. She stood from the bed and stalked over to him, "You're not my father or my boyfriend what I do is my business. I'm already raising a child I don't fucking need to be treated like one, so if that's what you came her to do then just leave."

Her hand shot out to go around him to open her door, but his reflexes were much quicker. He grabbed her wrist and tugged her into him.

"You're incredibly sexy when you're pissed," he purred.

The angry look on her face quickly fell and was replaced with shock and God help her she was turned on. He was fucking Batman for God sake. She had seen his body in magazine's and tabloids but she wondered what it would be like to run her hands over his perfectly sculpted muscles. It was then she realized her free hand was running down his arm. He let go of her wrist and lifted her up taking her the brief six steps to her bed before dropping her on it.

The cheap springs made her bounce and nearly fall backwards, but she regained her balance and greedily reach for his shirt as he climbed on her finally forcing her to lie on her back, but she successfully took his shirt with her and threw it on the floor.

His movements with her were slow but deliberate. His lips came down to hers and barely pecked them before kissing her cheek and then to her neck. She was much more eager and tried to urge him along by grabbing his hair and pushing his face further onto her neck. As if that wasn't enough she wrapped her legs around his waist and hoped he would get the hint.

He chuckled into her neck and kissed his way to her ear, "Patience, you wouldn't want Addison to hear us, would you?"

And scene.

She let go of his head and the tight grip around his waist loosened. If he hadn't caught on to _that,_ the frustrated sigh she let out was a giveaway. He pulled away and looked at her, "something I said?"

She rolled her eyes, "what do you think?"

Now it was his turn to be frustrated, "come on, she's not going to hear us."

"She might and it's irresponsible, I can't just leave my kid in her room, playing, while we bone."

He started laughing, "bone?"

"Not the point, I can't do it."

He sighed again for good measure and nodded. She let go of his waist so he could get off, but his lips came crashing on hers. She couldn't help but moan as his intensity finally matched what she had previously wanted.

Just as soon as it happened he pulled away and climbed away from her.

"That was evil," she said as she sat up. He smirked and picked his shirt up off the floor.

"Sorry I had too."

"I'm not so sure that's true," she replied standing up and stretching, watching him put his shirt back on.

"Allison," his once playful voice was now serious making her feel stiff.

"Bruce," she drawled out.

He placed his hand under her chin and then caressed her cheek, "I want to date you."

"D-Date me? I thought we talked about this already."

"Yes, we did, but I changed my mind. I don't care what the tabloids will say, I promise I will protect you and Addison, whether it's from the media or from the criminals in this city. It might be a risk, but you're worth it."

Her eyes were wide, this was it, he was finally putting her on the spot. There was no way she would just be able to wit her way out of this one, she had to make a decision. She glanced at the purse sitting by her dresser knowing there was a gun in there. Is that the life she wanted for herself and Addison? She looked back at the man standing before her, he was damaged, so was she, but he was a hero, and the amount of money he had he could protect her. She realized she was choosing between Bruce and Jack, even if neither one of them would know it. With one more glance between her purse and Bruce her lips curled into a smile.

"OK, we can date."

She had no idea that it would be a _big_ mistake.

* * *

**Once again, I would really like a review just to know you still want to read. For all I know, no one is even reading Joker fanfics anymore.**


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